William  Jennings  Bryan 

LETTERS  TO  A 

CHINESE  OFFICIAL 

Being  a reply  to 

LETTERS  FROM  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


A 

CB  425  . D6  B8 
Bryan,  William  Jennings, 
1860- 

Letters  to  a Chinese 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/letterstochineseOObrya 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


L E T T E R S T O 


A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


BEING  A WESTERN  VIEW  OF 
EASTERN  CIVILIZATION 


BY  ^ 

WILLIAM  JENNINGS  BRYAN 


NEW  YORK 

MCCLURE,  PHILLIPS  & CO. 
MCMVI 


Copyright,  1906,  by 
WILLIAM  JENNINGS  BRYAN 


Published,  August,  1906 


PREFACE 


Three  years  ago  a little  volume  entitled  “ Letters 
from  a Chinese  Official,  being  an  eastern  view  of 
western  civilization,”  was  published  by  McClure, 
Phillips  and  Company  and  at  once  had  a large  sale. 

The  author  discussed  Christian  civilization  as 
he  found  it  in  England,  but  in  the  introduction 
to  the  American  edition  he  explained  that  the 
arguments  presented  by  him  applied  with  equal 
force  to  the  United  States.  His  indictment  of 
the  inconsistencies  of  Christians  contains  so  much 
of  truth  and  his  arraignment  of  the  conduct  of 
Christian  nations  at  home  and  abroad  is  in  some 
respects  so  just  that  his  words  were  received  not 
only  with  appreciation  but  with  gratitude.  I recall 
how  deeply  I was  myself  impressed  and  how  many 
Americans  commented  favorably  upon  his  letters. 
It  struck  me  at  the  time  as  a favorable  omen  that 
so  frank  an  arraignment  of  our  national  sins  of 
omission  and  commission  by  a foreigner  should  be 
so  kindly  welcomed,  for  a willingness  to  admit 

[v] 


PREFACE 


faults  is  the  first  step  toward  improvement.  To 
desire  “ to  see  ourselves  as  others  see  us  ” indi- 
cates an  humble  ambition  for  self-betterment,  and 
in  holding  the  mirror  up  to  us,  this  nameless  Chi- 
nese official  has  not  only  rendered  a real  service  but 
has  also  given  our  people  a chance  to  prove  their 
good  intentions. 

Never  having  visited  China  and  never  having  ac- 
quainted myself  with  Chinese  philosophy,  the  ab- 
surdity of  his  contrast  between  Chinese  life  and 
American  life  was  not  apparent.  Now  that  I have 
had  an  opportunity  to  test  his  description  by  per- 
sonal observation,  I feel  that  a reply  is  due  to  him 
as  well  as  required  from  us,  for  the  hostility  mani- 
fested in  China  toward  American  ideals  is  evidently 
founded  upon  the  same  misconception  of  our  pur- 
pose which  he  betrays,  and  upon  a self-sufficiency 
which  his  little  book,  if  it  has  been  translated  into 
Chinese,  would  naturally  encourage. 

He  rightfully  estimates  the  importance  of  the 
struggle  between  Eastern  and  Western  civilization 
although  he  does  not  always  comprehend  the  prin- 
ciples which  underlie  it.  It  is,  as  he  says,  a conflict 
between  ideals,  but  he  misrepresents  the  Christian 
nations,  exaggerates  Chinese  virtues  and  shows 
[ vi  ] 


PREFACE 


himself  ignorant  of  the  spirit  of  our  religion.  He 
defends  the  policy  of  national  seclusion,  finds  fault 
with  labor-saving  machinery,  belittles  our  govern- 
mental methods,  and  speaks  of  both  the  Christian 
and  the  Christian  home  in  a way  that  proves  that  he 
has  never  become  acquainted  with  either. 

While  he  has  clothed  his  opinions  in  language 
which  is  for  the  most  part  considerate  and  polite, 
he  can  see  nothing  outside  of  China  worthy  of  imi- 
tation or  respect,  and  his  conclusions  are  calculated 
to  mislead  his  own  people.  It  may  not  be  out  of 
place  for  an  American  to  supplement  his  work  by 
pointing  out  the  errors  into  which  he  has  uncon- 
sciously fallen.  This  is  undertaken  in  the  hope 
that  those  of  my  own  countrymen  who  read  these 
letters  may  have  their  interest  quickened  in  the 
spread  of  Christian  ideals  and  that  the  Chinese 
into  wrhose  hands  they  may  fall  may  contemplate 
more  calmly  the  inevitable  transition  through  which 
their  nation  must  pass  from  the  dead  stagnation  of 
years  gone  by  to  the  living  future  upon  which  it 
is  even  now  entering. 

In  the  same  friendly  spirit  with  which  I credit 
him,  I desire  to  point  out  some  of  the  advantages 
of  our  civilization  which  he  overlooks  and  some  of 
[ vii  1 


PREFACE 


the  defects  of  his  own  to  which  his  eyes  have  been 
closed,  and  I shall  be  content  if  these  lines  receive 
from  his  people  the  generous  consideration  shown 
his  letters  in  our  country. 


P.  S. — The  letters  were  written  on  ship-board 
and  the  preface  in  quarantine  at  Suez,  Egypt;  they 
were  sent  to  my  home  at  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  with 
instructions  to  have  them  published.  Just  as  they 
are  about  to  appear  I learn  that  instead  of  being 
written  by  a Chinaman,  the  original  Chinese  letters 
were  written  by  an  Englishman  from  material  fur- 
nished him  by  a Chinaman.  Had  I known  this  ear- 
lier, I might  have  changed  the  language  of  some 
of  the  paragraphs,  but  as  it  is  not  an  individual 
but  an  argument  that  I am  combating,  I leave  the 
letters  as  they  were  written. 

W.  J.  B. 


[ viii  ] 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  Chinese  Civilization  Overrated  . . 3 

II.  Western  Civilization  Underrated  . 13 

III.  The  Folly  of  Isolation  ....  26 

IV.  Labor-saving  Machinery  ....  38 

V.  Government 49 

VI.  The  Home 59 

VII.  Without  a Mission 70 

VIII.  Christianity  Versus  Confucianism  . . 80 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


CHAPTER  I 


CHINESE  CIVILIZATION  OVERRATED 

To  the  Author  of  “Letters  from  a Chinese 
Official 

You  have  laid  my  country  under  obligations  to  you 
by  your  very  candid,  if  not  always  fair,  criticism 
of  her  ideals  and  institutions.  The  fact  that  you 
exaggerate  her  faults  is  not  without  its  advantages, 
for  it  is  not  only  complimentary  to  her  that  you 
must  enlarge  her  defects  in  order  to  find  a basis  for 
attack,  but  a magnifying  glass  helps  us  to  under- 
stand objects  which  otherwise  might  escape  atten- 
tion. While  your  observations  are  founded  upon 
your  experience  in  Europe,  you  apply  your  con- 
clusions to  the  United  States  as  well. 

I can  safely  leave  Europeans  to  defend  their  sev- 
eral countries  from  such  indictments  as  are  made 
specifically  against  them,  but  as  you  deal  with  fun- 
damental principles,  I can,  as  an  American,  discuss 
these  principles  as  they  apply  to  civilization  in 
general. 


[3] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


You,  not  unnaturally,  overrate  the  virtues  of  your 
people,  the  advantages  of  your  country  and  the 
merits  of  the  civilization  with  which  you  are  best 
acquainted.  There  is  in  all  an  attachment  for  fam- 
ily, kindred,  community  and  nation,  and  it  is  as 
much  expected  that  we  shall  prefer  the  institutions 
under  which  we  have  grown  as  it  is  that  we  should 
wear  the  style  of  dress  that  our  parents  have  worn 
and  be  partial  to  the  kind  of  food  that  they  ate.  It 
is  the  exception,  not  the  rule,  that  anyone  changes 
materially  from  those  among  whom  he  was  reared, 
and  in  China  the  influence  of  environment  is  very 
much  increased  by  ancestor  worship  and  by  the  rev- 
erence in  which  the  sages  are  held.  In  your  case  I 
fear  that  distance  has  lent  enchantment  and  that 
your  absence  from  your  native  land  has  made  your 
heart  grow  fonder  of  early  scenes,  while  an  active 
imagination  has  enabled  you  to  draw  pictures  which 
cannot  fairly  be  said  to  be  from  life.  Take,  for  in- 
stance, that  beautiful  passage  in  your  third  letter 
in  which  you  portray  your  early  home: 

“ Far  away  in  the  East,  under  sunshine  such  as 
you  never  saw  (for  even  such  light  as  you  have 
you  stain  and  infect  with  sooty  smoke),  on  the  shore 
of  a broad  river  stands  the  house  where  I was  born. 
[4] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


It  is  one  among  thousands,  but  everyone  stands  in 
its  own  garden,  simply  painted  in  white  or  gray, 
modest,  cheerful  and  clean.  For  many  miles  along 
the  valley,  one  after  the  other,  they  lift  their  blue 
or  red-tiled  roofs  out  of  a sea  of  green,  while  here 
and  there  glitters  out  over  a clump  of  trees  the  gold 
enamel  of  some  tall  pagoda.  The  river,  crossed  by 
frequent  bridges  and  crowded  with  barges  and 
junks,  bears  on  its  clear  stream  the  traffic  of  thriv- 
ing village-markets.  For  prosperous  peasants  peo- 
ple all  the  district,  owning  and  tilling  the  fields 
their  fathers  owned  and  tilled  before  them.  The  soil 
on  which  they  work,  they  may  say,  they  and  their 
ancestors  have  made.  For  see ! almost  to  the  summit 
what  once  were  barren  hills  are  waving  green  with 
cotton  and  rice,  sugar,  oranges  and  tea.  Water 
drawn  from  the  river  bed  girdles  the  slope  with  sil- 
ver; and  falling  from  channel  to  channel  in  a 
thousand  bright  cascades,  plashing  in  cisterns, 
chuckling  in  pipes,  soaking  and  oozing  in  the  soil, 
distributes  freely  to  all  alike  fertility,  verdure  and 
life.  . . . The  senses  respond  to  their  objects;  they 
grow  exquisite  to  a degree  you  cannot  well  perceive 
in  your  northern  climate;  and  beauty  pressing  in 
from  without  moulds  the  spirit  and  mind  insensibly 
[5] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


to  harmony  with  herself.  If  in  China  we  have  man- 
ners, if  we  have  art,  if  we  have  morals,  the  reason, 
to  those  who  can  see,  is  not  far  to  seek.  Nature  has 
taught  us;  and  so  far,  we  are  only  more  fortunate 
than  you.  But,  also,  we  have  had  the  grace  to  learn 
her  lesson;  and  that,  we  think,  wre  may  ascribe  to 
our  intelligence.  For,  consider,  here  in  this  lovely 
valley  live  thousands  of  souls  without  any  law  save 
that  of  custom,  without  any  rule  save  that  of  their 
own  hearths.  Industrious  they  are,  as  you  hardly 
know  industry  in  Europe;  but  it  is  the  industry  of 
free  men  working  for  their  kith  and  kin,  on  the 
lands  they  received  from  their  fathers,  to  transmit, 
enriched  by  their  labors,  to  their  sons.  They  have 
no  other  ambition ; they  do  not  care  to  amass  wealth ; 
and  if  in  each  generation  some  must  needs  go  out 
into  the  world,  it  is  with  the  hope,  not  commonly 
frustrated,  to  return  to  the  place  of  their  birth  and 
spend  their  declining  years  among  the  scenes  and 
faces  that  were  dear  to  their  youth.  Among  such 
people  there  is  no  room  for  fierce,  indecent  rival- 
ries. None  is  master,  none  servant;  but  equality, 
concrete  and  real,  regulates  and  sustains  their  in- 
tercourse. Healthy  toil,  sufficient  leisure,  frank  hos- 
pitality, a content  born  of  habit  and  undisturbed  by 
[6] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


chimerical  ambitions,  a sense  of  beauty  fostered  by 
the  loveliest  Nature  in  the  world,  and  finding  ex- 
pression in  gracious  and  dignified  manners  where  it 
is  not  embodied  in  exquisite  works  of  art — such  are 
the  characteristics  of  the  people  among  whom  I was 
born.  Does  my  memory  flatter  me?  Do  I realize  the 
scenes  of  my  youth?  It  may  be  so.  But  this  I know: 
that  some  such  life  as  I have  described,  reared  on 
the  basis  of  labor  on  the  soil,  of  equality  and  jus- 
tice, does  exist  and  flourish  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  China.” 

If  from  this  passage  we  strike  out  all  that  can  be 
said  with  equal  truth  of  other  countries  and  then 
eliminate  that  which  cannot  truthfully  be  said  of 
China,  but  little  remains.  Every  nation  has  its  pas- 
toral scenes  and  its  quiet  spots  where  one  can  live 
close  to  Nature;  every  country  has  its  rivers — some 
broader  than  others,  some  clearer  than  others,  but 
all  interesting — and  most  interesting  to  those  who 
know  their  every  bend  and  shallow. 

Not  only  in  China  but  in  India  and  along  the 
Nile  has  irrigation  ministered  to  the  needs  of  man 
and  added  beauty  to  the  landscape;  in  Java,  too, 
where  the  Mohammedan  dwells  and  in  Japan  where 
Confucius  is  not  worshipped,  the  rice  fields  are  as 
[7] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


skillfully  carved  out  of  the  valleys’  sloping  walls 
and  the  hills  are  as  artistically  decorated  with  the 
tea  plant  as  in  China.  In  every  part  of  the  world 
can  be  found  the  points  “ where  man  succumbs  and 
Nature  has  her  way,”  heights  where  crags  seem  to 
pierce  the  sky  and  where  wild  flowers  grow.  The 
Creator  scattered  broadcast  those  restful  and  se- 
cluded nooks  where  silence  soothes  the  troubled 
spirit  and  where  the  call  of  conscience  and  the 
promptings  of  the  inner  man  are  not  drowned  by 
the  babel  of  a busy  world.  Even  the  northern  cli- 
mate, which  you  regard  as  inhospitable  to  the  ex- 
quisite and  the  beautiful,  does  not  congeal  the 
heart  or  chill  the  enthusiasm,  as  history  abundantly 
teaches,  and  it  is  a lesson  yet  to  be  learned  if  either 
reason  or  morals  require  the  stimulus  of  a southern 
sun.  In  so  far  as  your  picture  deals  with  the  beau- 
ties of  Nature,  what  you  say  might  be  said  as  appro- 
priately of  thousands  of  spots,  thousands  of  miles 
away  from  your  native  land.  Every  nation  of  im- 
portance has  had  its  loveliness  immortalized  by  its 
poets  and  its  patriots,  and  their  subjects  have  been 
as  inspiring  as  yours.  I am  satisfied  that  I did  not 
pass  your  home,  for  I saw  little  in  fifteen  hundred 
miles  of  travel  to  justify  your  description.  A large 
[8] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


percentage  of  your  people  live  on  the  lowlands,  and 
millions  of  them  have  never  seen  a mountain  or  a 
clear  stream.  Even  those  who  have  come  into  con- 
tact with  the  beauties  of  Nature  have  not  shown 
themselves  superior  in  philosophy,  art  or  morality 
to  the  people  of  other  lands. 

As  for  their  living  “ without  any  law  save  that 
of  custom,  without  any  rule  save  that  of  their  own 
hearth,”  this  is  a pleasant  piece  of  imagination 
which  would  indicate  that  you  have  never  read  the 
barbarous  criminal  laws  of  your  own  country  which 
are  even  now  being  modified  under  the  influence  of 
Western  ideas — the  slicing  of  the  prisoner  into  a 
thousand  pieces,  the  exposing  of  the  trunks  of  the 
beheaded  and  the  extraction  of  evidence  by  torture 
having  only  recently  been  abandoned.  It  would 
seem  that  the  Chinese  custom  of  punishing  the 
whole  family  for  the  guilt  of  one  might  possibly 
have  had  some  influence  in  preventing  a violation 
of  law,  but  the  injustice  done  by  it  was  so  much 
greater  than  the  crime  prevented  that  it,  too,  has 
just  been  given  up- — the  man  at  the  head  of  the 
revision  committee  having  received  his  inspiration 
from  contact  with  European  and  American  civiliza- 
tion during  his  residence  in  the  West.  I have  no 
[9] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


thought  of  assailing  the  general  character  of  the 
Chinese,  but  your  extravagant  praise  is  in  sharp 
contrast  with  the  facts  that  one  gleans  in  passing 
through  the  country- — the  fact,  for  instance,  that 
each  one  has  to  protect  his  ripening  crop  from  his 
neighbors. 

Not  only  are  property  rights  obscured  in  the 
minds  of  a considerable  proportion  of  the  masses, 
but  the  officials  are  notoriously  corrupt.  Confucius 
and  Mencius  complained  of  the  degeneracy  of  the 
times  in  which  they  lived,  and  the  times  do  not  seem 
to  have  improved.  Not  all  Chinese  in  authority  are 
dishonest,  and  not  all  of  the  subjects  disregard  the 
law,  but  there  are  enough  to  disprove  any  claim 
that  may  be  made  to  superiority. 

“ They  (the  Chinese)  do  not  care  to  amass 
wealth.”  This  does  not  accord  with  one’s  observa- 
tion either  in  China  or  in  the  countries  to  which  the 
Chinese  have  gone.  They  not  only  amass  wealth 
where  they  have  a chance  to  do  so,  but  they  show 
as  much  avarice  as  can  be  found  among  any  other 
people.  As  usurers  they  need  fear  no  rivals  among 
the  white  races  as  anyone  can  testify  who  has 
visited  the  Malay  states. 

That  they  are  industrious  is  unquestionably  true 

[10] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


— that  is,  those  who  do  not  feel  themselves  above 
labor — but  to  say  that  they  are  contented  is  to  ig- 
nore the  fact  that  they  have  left  their  fatherland 
and  swarmed  to  other  countries  in  order  to  better 
their  condition,  and  when  the  coolies  have  been 
excluded  (as  they  have  been  from  America)  retal- 
iation is  threatened  in  the  form  of  a boycott. 

The  picture  which  you  draw  is  not  true  to  life; 
you  hold  up  the  best  that  you  can  find  in  your 
country  (or  even  better  than  you  can  find),  and 
comparing  it  with  the  worst  that  you  can  find  in 
Christian  countries,  you  boast,  in  a holier-than-thou 
spirit,  of  superiority.  It  would  not  be  fair  to  judge 
China  by  her  coolie  class,  although  that  class  con- 
stitutes a large  element  of  her  population;  neither 
is  it  fair  to  judge  her  by  her  refined  and  polished 
diplomats  who,  while  sneering  at  Western  civiliza- 
tion, have  liberally  borrowed  from  it;  we  must 
judge  by  the  average  man  which  Chinese  environ- 
ment has  produced,  and  this  average  man  does  not 
approach  in  mental  strength,  moral  stamina  or  high 
conception  of  life  the  product  of  Christian  civili- 
zation. 

“ None  is  master,  none  is  servant,  but  equality, 
concrete  and  real,  regulates  and  sustains  their  in- 
[11] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


tercourse,”  you  say,  and  yet  nowhere  except  in 
India  are  the  social  strata  more  distinctly  marked ; 
nowhere  is  the  thin  upper  crust  more  indifferent 
to  the  welfare  of  the  mass  beneath. 

We  are  told  that  the  Chinese  are  peaceable,  and 
it  is  certain  that  they  have  not  shown  much  dispo- 
sition to  risk  bodily  harm  in  defense  of  country,  of 
compatriots  or  posterity,  but  the  hundreds  of  walled 
cities  scattered  throughout  the  country  and  the  pro- 
tected villages  in  which  the  country  people  are  hud- 
dled together  would  indicate  that  they  are  more 
afraid  of  each  other  than  are  the  inhabitants  of 
Europe  and  America. 

Wrhile  you  refer  to  the  crowded  cities  and  slums 
of  the  Western  world,  you  have  nothing  to  say  of 
the  narrow,  filthy  streets  of  the  cities  of  China, 
where  the  people  are  crowded  together  in  squalor 
and  live  without  sanitation  amid  noisesome  smells. 
This  would  be  a sombre  background  against  which 
to  paint  the  green  fields  and  the  purling  brooks  of 
a rural  landscape.  But  long  residence  abroad  has 
doubtless  removed  all  unpleasant  lines  from  the 
picture  and  left  only  the  delightful  memories  with 
which  a kind  Heavenly  Father  clothes  the  scenes 
of  childhood. 

[ 12] 


CHAPTER  II 


WESTERN  CIVILIZATION  UNDERRATED 

The  Chinaman  who  remains  at  home  would  obtain 
a very  erroneous  impression  of  Western  civilization 
if  he  relied  entirely  upon  your  letters.  In  speaking 
of  Chinese  civilization  you  exhausted  poetic  license 
in  glorifying  your  people  and  their  institutions;  but 
when  you  surveyed  Western  civilization,  you  re- 
corded mainly  that  which  the  inhabitants  of  Europe 
and  America  themselves  condemn  and  are  trying  to 
remedy.  Here  is  a specimen: 

“ Your  legislation  for  the  past  hundred  years  is 
a perpetual  and  fruitless  effort  to  regulate  the  dis- 
orders of  your  economic  system.  Your  poor,  your 
drunk,  your  incompetent,  your  sick,  your  aged,  ride 
you  like  a nightmare.  You  have  dissolved  all  human 
and  personal  ties,  and  you  endeavor,  in  vain,  to  re- 
place them  by  the  impersonal  activity  of  the  State. 
The  salient  characteristic  of  your  civilization  is  its 
irresponsibility.  You  have  liberated  forces  which 
you  cannot  control;  you  have  caught  yourselves  in 

[ 13] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


your  own  levers  and  cogs.  In  every  department  of 
business  you  are  substituting  for  the  individual  the 
company,  for  the  workman  the  tool.  The  making  of 
dividends  is  the  universal  preoccupation;  the  well- 
being of  the  laborer  is  no  one’s  concern  but  the 
State’s.  And  this  concern  even  the  State  is  incompe- 
tent to  undertake,  for  the  factors  by  which  it  is 
determined  are  beyond  its  control.  You  depend  on 
variations  of  supply  and  demand  which  you  can 
neither  determine  nor  anticipate.  The  failure  of  a 
harvest,  the  modification  of  a tariif  in  some  remote 
country,  dislocates  the  industry  of  millions,  thou- 
sands of  miles  away.  You  are  at  the  mercy  of  a 
prospector’s  luck,  an  inventor’s  genius,  a woman’s 
caprice — nay,  you  are  at  the  mercy  of  your  own 
instruments.  Your  capital  is  alive,  and  cries  for 
food;  starve  it,  and  it  turns  and  throttles  you.  You 
produce,  not  because  you  will,  but  because  you 
must;  you  consume,  not  what  you  choose,  but  what 
is  forced  upon  you.  Never  was  any  trade  so  bound 
as  this  which  you  call  free;  but  it  is  bound,  not  by 
a reasonable  will,  but  by  the  accumulated  irration- 
ality of  caprice.” 

In  a progressive  civilization  there  are  constant 
changes  in  legislation ; the  running  stream  is  seldom 

[ I*] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


straight,  but  its  waters  are  far  more  pure  than  the 
waters  of  the  pool  hemmed  in  by  changeless  moun- 
daries.  We  have  our  poor,  and  an  increasing  part  of 
the  energy  of  society  is  being  directed  toward  both 
prevention  and  alleviation,  and  yet  we  are  not  so 
poor  but  what  there  is  so  much  room  beneath  the 
lowest  strata  that  Chinese  workmen  will  cross  an 
ocean  to  occupy  it.  We  have  our  drunkards,  but  we 
also  have  our  temperance  societies  and  laws  permit- 
ting each  community  to  regulate  or  prohibit  the 
sale  of  liquor.  We  have  our  incompetents,  our  aged 
and  our  sick,  and  while  they  do  not  ride  us  “ like  a 
nightmare,”  they  so  appeal  to  our  sympathies  that 
our  land  is  dotted  with  hospitals,  homes  and  re- 
treats where  these  receive  care  and  attention.  Is  it 
possible  that  you  have  never  visited  these  institu- 
tions, some  of  them  supported  by  the  State,  some 
of  them  by  religious  societies,  and  others  by  pri- 
vate philanthropy?  Or,  having  seen  them,  did  they 
make  no  impression  upon  you?  Have  you  never 
visited  the  asylums  for  the  insane,  to  be  found  in 
every  State  and  in  all  the  Western  countries,  the 
schools  for  the  blind,  the  schools  for  the  deaf,  and 
the  homes  for  the  friendless?  Have  you  never  com- 
pared our  prisons  with  your  own  and  noted  our  more 
[15] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


humane  methods  of  treatment  and  the  greater  efforts 
for  the  reform  of  the  criminal? 

And  can  you  find  no  word  of  praise  for  the  col- 
leges, public  and  private,  to  be  found  throughout 
the  Western  world?  You  have  charged  our  country 
with  leading  the  world  in  the  mad  pursuit  of  mate- 
rial wealth,  but  I will  be  pardoned  if  I remind  you 
that  you  apparently  fail  to  appreciate  the  educa- 
tional advantages  which  are  open  to  all  of  our  peo- 
ple. There  is  no  child  so  poor  that  it  may  not  enter 
school,  supported  by  public  taxation,  and  continue 
its  studies  until  it  has  completed  a course  that  in- 
cludes not  only  the  rudiments  of  instruction  but 
the  sciences,  the  languages  and  technical  knowl- 
edge. To  these  have  been  added  industrial  schools 
where  the  mechanic  arts  are  taught,  and  agricul- 
tural colleges  which  present  the  results  of  experi- 
ments in  agriculture,  horticulture  and  stock-raising. 
These  not  only  train  those  who  labor  with  their 
hands,  but  teach  the  dignity  of  toil  and  combine 
the  mind  with  the  muscle  in  productive  employment. 
Besides  the  public  school,  reaching  from  kinder- 
garten to  university,  your  attention  has  doubtless 
been  called  to  the  colleges  and  academies  estab- 
lished by  secular  or  religious  societies  which  bring 
[16] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


higher  education  within  the  reach  of  those  who  pre- 
fer private  instruction.  Compare  the  school  system 
of  our  country  with  the  lack  of  such  systems  in 
your  own.  Our  schools  are  open  to  both  boys  and 
girls;  yours,  such  as  you  have  had  in  the  past,  are 
open  to  comparatively  few  of  the  boys ; our  schools 
have  brought  their  students  into  contact  with  all 
nations,  all  ages  and  all  climes  through  the  teach- 
ing of  history,  geography  and  literature;  yours 
have  been  narrow,  shallow  and  provincial  in  their 
courses.  Our  schools  have  led  their  students  into  all 
the  storehouses  of  knowledge  and  have  put  them 
in  possession  of  the  intellectual  wealth  bequeathed 
by  all  the  great  minds  of  all  the  world;  yours  have 
been  content  to  teach  the  sayings  of  a few  sages 
and  a few  poems  that  have  received  the  imperial 
sanction.  I need  not  speak  of  the  superiority  of  our 
scientific  courses,  for  you  admit  this,  although  you 
apparently  underestimate  the  wide-spread  influence 
of  scientific  studies. 

I am  surprised  that  after  so  long  a residence 
abroad  you  should  eulogize  a feature  of  your  civili- 
zation that  to  a Western  mind  seems  so  indefensible. 
You  say: 

“ And  there  is  another  point  which  weighs  with 

[17] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


me,  one  less  obvious,  perhaps,  but  not  less  impor- 
tant. In  any  society  it  must  always  be  the  case  that 
the  mass  of  men  are  absorbed  in  mechanical  labors. 
It  is  so  in  ours  no  less,  though  certainly  no  more, 
than  in  yours;  and,  so  far,  this  condition  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  affected  by  the  introduction  of 
machinery.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  in  every  society 
there  are,  or  should  be,  men  who  are  relieved  from 
this  servitude  to  matter  and  free  to  devote  them- 
selves to  higher  ends.  In  China,  for  many  centuries 
past,  there  has  been  a class  of  men  set  apart  from 
the  first  to  the  pursuit  of  liberal  arts,  and  destined 
to  the  functions  of  government.  These  men  form 
no  close  hereditary  caste;  it  is  open  to  anyone  to 
join  them  who  possesses  the  requisite  talent  and 
inclination ; and  in  this  respect  our  society  has  long 
been  the  most  democratic  in  the  world.  The  educa- 
tion to  which  we  subject  this  official  class  is  a mat- 
ter of  frequent  and  adverse  comment  among  you, 
and  it  is  not  my  intention  here  to  undertake  its 
defense.  What  I wish  to  point  out  is  the  fact  that, 
by  virtue  of  this  institution,  we  have  inculcated  and 
we  maintain  among  our  people  of  all  classes  a re- 
spect for  the  things  of  the  mind  and  of  the  spirit, 
to  which  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a parallel  in 
[ 18] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


Europe,  and  of  which,  in  particular,  there  is  no 
trace  in  England.  In  China  letters  are  respected, 
not  merely  to  a degree,  but  in  a sense  which  must 
seem,  I think,  to  you  unintelligible  and  over- 
strained.” 

You  follow  Confucius  and  Mencius  in  assuming 
that  society  should  be  permanently  divided  into  two 
parts,  one  part  to  be  beasts  of  burden,  the  other  part 
to  be  “ relieved  from  the  servitude  to  matter  and 
free  to  devote  themselves  to  higher  ends.”  Scarcely 
at  any  other  point  do  Eastern  and  American  civili- 
zation clash  more  sharply  than  at  this  point.  An 
intellectual  aristocracy  to  which  but  few  can  pos- 
sibly attain,  with  the  rest  condemned  to  ignorance, 
is  not  worthy  to  be  praised,  even  though  the  road 
to  it  leads  through  a private  school  and  is  open  to 
such  as  can  afford  it.  It  is  a false  democracy  that 
would  substitute  an  official  monopoly  of  learning 
for  a system  that  instructs  the  ruled  as  well  as  the 
rulers.  When  only  those  “ destined  to  the  functions 
of  government”  enjoy  the  “pursuit  of  the  liberal 
arts,”  it  is  not  strange  that,  having  reached  their 
destination,  the  educated  should  look  down  upon 
those  below,  but  it  would  be  strange  if  in  China 
letters  were  respected  to  an  extraordinary  degree. 

[19] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


The  wide  and  almost  impassable  gulf  between  the 
educated  and  uneducated  in  China  accounts  largely 
for  the  centuries  of  misrule  from  which  the  people 
have  suffered.  One  of  the  noticeable  features  of 
Japan’s  awakening  has  been  the  interest  taken  by 
the  educated  classes  in  the  uplifting  of  the  masses, 
while  in  China  those  at  the  top  of  the  ladder  have 
seemed  not  only  willing  to  stay  there  alone,  but  un- 
willing that  any  considerable  number  should  climb 
to  their  level. 

In  America  no  man  could  remain  long  in  public 
life  who  showed  any  inclination  to  withdraw  from 
others  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  educational  advan- 
tages which  he  himself  has  had,  or  to  limit  to  the 
official  classes  the  pursuit  of  the  liberal  arts.  If  it 
had  been  intended  that  only  a few  should  enjoy 
leisure  for  the  contemplation  of  “ higher  ends,” 
and  that  the  rest  should  be  “ absorbed  in  mechani- 
cal labors,”  surely  some  physical  mark  would  en- 
able us  to  distinguish  the  two  classes;  as  it  is,  any 
arbitrary  attempt  to  so  divide  the  people  of  any 
country  is  sure  to  leave  millions  with  longings  un- 
satisfied and  to  elevate  thousands  who  are  undeserv- 
ing. And  nowhere  has  this  system  of  selection  failed 
more  signally  than  in  China,  where  but  a small 
[20] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


percentage  of  those  who  aspire  to  official  position 
can  possibly  reach  it,  and  where  men  have  spent 
their  lives  in  examinations,  lured  on  by  the  hope  of 
finally  escaping  from  the  despised  classes,  con- 
scious always  that  the  stereotyped  course  which 
they  have  pursued  does  not  fit  them  for  anything 
else. 

Already  this  antiquated  and  effete  system  of 
education,  if  system  it  can  be  called,  is  slinking 
away  from  competition  with  the  broader  learning 
of  the  West,  and  a few  of  the  Chinese  officials  are 
boldly  advocating  a system  of  public  instruction 
patterned  after  America,  Europe  and  Japan.  Sev- 
eral thousand  new  schools  have  been  established 
since  the  Boxer  uprising,  and  who  will  say  that  this 
is  not  a desirable  change? 

Even  the  daily  newspaper  comes  under  the  ban 
and  you  see  in  it  only  a “ stream  of  solemn  fatuity, 
anecdotes,  puzzles,  puns  and  police  court  scandal,” 
and  this  you  are  pleased  to  describe  as  our  litera- 
ture. Granted,  that  our  newspapers  are  not  perfect; 
how  can  we  expect  them  to  be  perfect  so  long  as 
they  are  published  by  imperfect  human  beings? 
But  there  are  different  kinds  of  newspapers,  and 
you  have  been  unfortunate  in  the  selection  of  your 
[21] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


reading  matter  if  you  have  found  only  puns,  puz- 
zles and  police  court  scandals.  There  is  not  a capi- 
tal in  Europe  nor  a State  in  America  in  which  you 
will  not  find  daily  and  weekly  papers,  not  to  speak 
of  magazines,  which  are  far  above  the  particular 
sheets  which  you  describe.  However  guilty  some 
of  our  newspapers  may  be  of  publishing  sensa- 
tional news  and  of  pandering  to  low  taste,  it  is 
eminently  unfair  to  disregard  the  vast  good  which 
they  do,  or  to  underestimate  the  influence  which 
they  exert  in  behalf  of  social  progress  and  govern- 
mental reform.  They  call  attention  to  the  miscon- 
duct of  officials,  to  abuses  that  need  a remedy  and 
to  conditions  which  can  be  improved.  No  great 
wrong  can  long  resist  the  attacks  of  a free  press, 
and  China  sorely  needs  the  newspaper— aye,  more, 
China  is  beginning  to  experiment  with  the  news- 
paper, and  it  is  bound  to  exert  a powerful  influence 
upon  the  China  of  the  future. 

But  why  say  our  literature  is  the  daily  press? 
You  cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  volume  of  books 
constantly  flowing  from  the  presses  of  Europe  and 
America.  These  works  cover  every  conceivable  sub- 
ject— history,  science,  religion,  ethics,  economics, 
poetry,  travels,  essays,  fiction,  etc.  What  have 
[22] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


you  in  China  to  match  them  in  quantity  or  quality? 
You  say  that  we  have  “ dissolved  all  human  and 
personal  ties  ” and  “ endeavor,  in  vain,  to  replace 
them  by  the  impersonal  activity  of  the  state.” 
While  it  is  true  that  the  sphere  of  state  activity 
is  much  larger  in  the  Western  than  in  the  Eastern 
world,  it  is  not  true  that  human  or  personal  ties 
have  been  dissolved;  on  the  contrary,  humanity  is 
nowhere  more  potential  or  humane  sentiments  more 
controlling.  Without  loosening  the  family  ties,  we 
have  strengthened  the  ties  of  brotherhood  indefi- 
nitely beyond  anything  known  in  China. 

Not  only  do  our  churches  teach  the  doctrine  of 
brotherhood,  but  it  is  the  basis  of  the  numerous 
fraternities  which  are  constantly  widening  our  sym- 
pathies and  cementing  together  those  who  differ  in 
creed,  in  political  opinion  and  in  occupation. 

I need  not  reply  to  your  strictures  on  our  archi- 
tecture further  than  to  suggest  that  neither  in  your 
public  nor  in  your  private  buildings  do  you  make 
any  approach  to  the  beauty  of  Western  models,  and 
that  the  skill  displayed  in  the  construction  of  your 
ancient  monuments  and  temples  has  few  duplicates 
in  your  work  of  today. 

You  have  condemned,  I think  justly,  the  opium 
[23] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


war  waged  against  you  by  England,  but  your  pro- 
test would  have  more  weight  if  you  did  not  devote 
as  much  of  the  soil  of  China  to  the  cultivation  of 
the  poppy  and  if  your  countrymen  did  not  carry 
the  vice  into  every  country  into  which  they  go. 
You  also  condemn  with  reason  the  “ land-grabbing 
policy  ” which  some  European  nations  have  pur- 
sued toward  your  country.  The  exchanging  of  mur- 
dered missionaries  for  naval  bases  and  open  ports 
is  not  endorsed  by  the  Christian  conscience,  how- 
ever cruel  the  methods  employed  by  your  people, 
or  however  savage  their  attacks  upon  those  who 
enter  China  for  peaceful  purposes.  I will  go  far- 
ther and  say  that  I have  observed  in  China  con- 
duct on  the  part  of  foreigners  entirely  indefensible, 
though  not  more  coarse  or  brutal  than  the  conduct 
of  the  Chinese  government  toward  its  subjects. 
These  are  exceptional  cases,  however,  and  are  no 
more  sufficient  for  the  arraignment  of  Christians 
than  are  the  recent  cases  of  bomb-throwing  in  China 
for  the  condemnation  of  the  whole  population. 

Your  people  ought  to  know  that  in  all  that  makes 
life  valuable,  that  in  all  that  promotes  the  welfare 
of  the  whole  people,  that  in  all  that  justifies  the 
existence  of  a state,  that  in  all  that  advances  a genu- 
[ 24] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


ine  civilization,  the  countries  which  you  condemn 
are  so  vastly  superior  to  China  that  it  is  difficult 
to  make  a comparison  between  them.  This  supe- 
riority is  recognized  by  a growing  band  of  Chinese 
reformers  whose  zeal  for  the  uplifting  of  their 
country  emboldens  them  to  speak  out  against  the 
old  system  at  the  risk  of  their  lives. 


[25] 


CHAPTER  III 


THE  FOLLY  OF  ISOLATION 

You  are  an  exponent  of  the  doctrine  of  national 
isolation,  and  you  state  your  position  with  a frank- 
ness that  leaves  no  ground  for  misunderstanding. 
You  say: 

“ Left  to  ourselves  we  should  never  have  sought 
intercourse  with  the  West.  We  have  no  motive  to 
do  so,  for  we  desire  neither  to  proselytize  nor  to 
trade.” 

And  again: 

“ And  as  we  are  not  led  to  interfere  with  you 
by  the  desire  to  convert  you,  so  are  we  not  driven 
to  do  so  by  the  necessities  of  trade.  Economically, 
as  well  as  politically,  we  are  sufficient  to  ourselves. 
What  we  consume  we  produce,  and  what  wTe  produce 
we  consume.  We  do  not  require,  and  we  have  not 
sought,  the  products  of  other  nations ; and  we  hold 
it  no  less  imprudent  than  unjust  to  make  war  on 
strangers  in  order  to  open  their  markets.  A society, 
we  conceive,  that  is  to  be  politically  stable  must  be 
[26] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


economically  independent;  and  we  regard  an  exten- 
sive foreign  trade  as  necessarily  a source  of  social 
demoralization.” 

I will  go  as  far  as  you  can  in  the  condemnation 
of  wars  waged  for  trade,  but  I cannot  agree  with 
you  that  either  national  necessity  or  national  wel- 
fare requires  non-intercourse  between  nations.  There 
is  inexpressible  egotism  in  the  declaration  that  your 
nation  or  any  other  nation  is  so  complete  in  its  pos- 
sessions and  so  perfect  in  its  ideals  and  development 
as  to  need  nothing  from  without.  Neither  is  it  a 
sound  doctrine  that  a society,  “ to  be  politically 
stable,  must  be  economically  independent,”  or  that 
an  extensive  foreign  trade  is  necessarily  a source 
of  social  demoralization.  No  one  nation  produces 
everything  that  it  can  profitably  use,  and  if  a nation 
were  large  enough  to  do  so,  there  would  be  an  eco- 
nomic waste  in  attempting  to  compel  commerce  be- 
tween extreme  sections  that  might  more  advanta- 
geously be  carried  on  with  neighboring  nations. 
While  there  are  few  areas  of  any  considerable  size 
upon  which  people  cannot,  if  necessary,  exist  inde- 
pendently of  the  rest  of  the  world  (just  as  each 
individual  can  if  need  be  raise  his  own  food,  do 
his  own  cooking  and  make  his  own  clothes),  still 
[27] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


a hermit  policy  is  almost  as  foolish  for  a nation 
as  for  an  individual.  Experience  has  shown  that  it 
is  wiser  for  the  individual  to  do  that  which  he  can 
do  best  and  exchange  his  surplus  for  that  which 
others  can  produce  better  than  he,  and  the  logic 
of  this  policy  is  as  strong  when  applied  to  inter- 
course between  nations.  The  highest  type  of  man 
is  not  the  most  independent  man;  he  is  rather  the 
most  dependent  man,  for  his  interests  are  inextri- 
cably interwoven  with  the  interests  of  his  fellows. 
The  savage  is  far  more  independent  than  the  civi- 
lized man,  for,  living  without  continuous  labor  upon 
the  herbs  which  he  may  gather  or  upon  the  game 
which  his  arrow  may  kill,  he  can  entirely  avoid  the 
“ demoralization  ” of  foreign  trade.  There  are  sev- 
eral means  by  which  human  progress  can  be  meas- 
ured, and  one  of  the  surest  is  that  of  mutual  ex- 
change and  interindependence,  and  is  this  not  also 
true  of  nations  ? 

Japan  has  amazed  the  world  by  her  marvelous 
strides  during  the  last  half  century.  You  used  to 
look  down  upon  this  little  nation  with  ill-concealed 
disdain;  neither  the  geographical  proximity  of  her 
people  nor  their  race  resemblance  to  your  own  could 
lift  them  to  the  range  of  your  vision,  and  yet  today 
[28] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


you  treat  the  plenipotentiaries  of  Japan  with  dis- 
tinguished consideration  and  employ  her  sons  as 
school  teachers  in  your  budding  schools  and  as  drill 
masters  in  your  growing  army.  When  did  this 
change  take  place?  When  did  the  new  era  begin? 
Was  it  not  when  she  abandoned  the  very  policy  of 
seclusion  which  you  hug  to  your  breast?  For  two 
and  a half  centuries  she  locked  her  ports  against  the 
outer  world,  kept  her  soil  sacred  from  the  tread 
of  the  stranger  and  forbade  her  people  to  travel 
abroad;  for  two  and  a half  centuries  she  produced 
what  she  consumed  and  consumed  what  she  pro- 
duced, even  prohibiting  the  building  of  large  sea- 
going craft  lest  she  might  suffer  contamination. 
And  then  — behold  the  result  — she  altered  her 
policy,  sent  her  sons  like  winged  messengers  to 
Europe  and  America,  opened  her  harbors  to  the 
sails  of  every  nation,  invited  tutors  to  bring 
the  learning  of  all  the  colleges  to  her  students, 
and  now  with  increasing  influence  and  growing 
commerce  she  stands  the  colossal  figure  of  the 
Orient. 

You  pay  a flattering  tribute  to  the  greater  wis- 
dom of  Japan  when  you  send,  as  you  do,  thousands 
of  your  young  men  annually  to  her  universities. 

[29] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


Did  any  foreign  nation  ever  send  students  to 
China’s  schools? 

You  seem  depressed  by  the  fear  that  foreign  com- 
merce will  disturb  the  world’s  peace,  and  your  fore- 
bodings of  evil  find  expression  in  the  following 
words : 

“ Such  is  the  internal  economy  of  your  state,  as 
it  presents  itself  to  a Chinaman;  and  not  more  en- 
couraging is  the  spectacle  of  your  foreign  relations. 
Commercial  intercourse  between  nations,  it  was  sup- 
posed some  fifty  years  ago,  would  inaugurate  an  era 
of  peace;  and  there  appear  to  be  many  among  you 
who  still  cling  to  this  belief.  But  never  was  belief 
more  plainly  contradicted  by  the  facts.  The  com- 
petition for  markets  bids  fair  to  be  a more  fruitful 
cause  of  war  than  was  ever  in  the  past  the  ambition 
of  princes  or  the  bigotry  of  priests.  The  people 
of  Europe  fling  themselves,  like  hungry  beasts  of 
prey,  on  every  yet  unexploited  quarter  of  the  globe. 
Hitherto  the)7  have  confined  their  acts  of  spoliation 
to  those  whom  they  regard  as  outside  their  own  pale. 
But  always,  while  they  divide  the  spoil,  they  watch 
each  other  with  a jealous  eye;  and  sooner  or  later, 
when  there  is  nothing  left  to  divide,  they  will  fall 
upon  one  another.  That  is  the  real  meaning  of  your 
[ 30] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


armaments ; you  must  devour  or  be  devoured.  And 
it  is  precisely  those  trade  relations,  which  it  was 
thought  would  knit  you  in  the  bonds  of  peace, 
which,  by  making  everyone  of  you  cut-throat  rivals 
of  the  others,  have  brought  you  within  reasonable 
distance  of  a general  war  of  extermination.” 

I shall  not  attempt  to  defend  the  maintaining  of 
large  standing  armies  with  a view  to  conquest  nor 
shall  I excuse  the  forcible  extension  of  either  ter- 
ritory or  trade,  but  you  will  pardon  me  if  I insist 
that  commerce  is  a pacific,  not  a disturbing  factor 
in  the  world. 

While  it  is  true  that  wars  have  been  waged  for 
commerce,  it  is  also  true  that  commerce  has  pre- 
vented more  wars  than  it  has  caused.  Recurring  to 
the  savage,  you  will  not  deny  that  among  the  roving 
tribes  which  have  no  commerce  at  all  there  is  con- 
stant warfare.  Not  a certain  percentage  of  the  able- 
bodied  men,  but  all  of  them,  are  warriors.  Com- 
merce is  not  the  only  force  that  has  been  respon- 
sible for  the  gradual  knitting  of  the  world  together, 
but  it  has  been  a potent  one.  The  business  portion 
of  a country  exerts  a strong  influence  upon  its  policy 
and  business  men  are  preeminently  disposed  to 
peace — so  much  so,  in  fact,  that  they  have  often 
[31  ] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


been  accused  of  putting  their  financial  interests 
above  their  patriotism.  In  proportion  as  nations 
trade  with  each  other  they  are  slow  to  engage  in 
a war,  for  business  is  a sort  of  hostage  which  each 
nation  gives  to  the  other. 

While  we  have  recently  witnessed  bloody  wars 
in  different  parts  of  the  world,  they  do  not  contra- 
dict the  statement  that  the  world  is  growing  toward 
peace.  It  is  a common  error  to  form  a rule  from 
an  instance,  but  it  is  none  the  less  a mistake.  The 
Hague  Peace  Congress  was  suggested  by  Russia 
and  was  quickly  endorsed  by  the  United  States, 
England  and  Japan.  All  of  these  nations  have  since 
that  time  been  engaged  in  wars  of  considerable  mag- 
nitude, and  yet  the  Hague  Tribunal  grows  in  im- 
portance and  the  peace  movement  spreads.  The  next 
fifty  years  are  more  apt  to  see  a decrease  than  an 
increase  in  preparations  for  bloodshed,  and  while 
commerce  will  not  be  credited  with  accomplishing 
this  great  result  unaided,  she  cannot  be  denied  her 
share  of  the  glory. 

But  intercourse  between  nations  can  be  defended 
upon  other  grounds.  People  need  to  know  each 
other  and  this  is  as  true  of  groups  as  of  individuals. 
As  “ no  one  liveth  unto  himself  or  dietli  unto  him- 
[32] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


self,”  so  no  nation  can  entirely  separate  itself  from 
the  rest  of  the  world,  nor  should  it  desire  to  do  so. 
Wisdom  has  no  pent-up  habitation.  Truth  is  many- 
sided,  and  no  one  individual  or  one  nation  has  made 
a complete  survey  of  it.  As  individuals  grow  in 
breadth  of  mind,  depth  of  thought  and  clearness  of 
vision  by  a comparison  of  views,  so  nations  are  en- 
larged, strengthened  and  developed  by  intercourse. 
It  is  out  of  combat  between  opposing  doctrines,  con- 
flicting opinions  and  differing  ideals  that  the  best 
emerges,  “ purified  as  by  fire.” 

Sometimes  freedom  of  speech  is  denied  to  the 
subjects  of  a king,  but  censorship  is  ruinous  to  the 
ruler  as  well  as  to  his  people — -more  ruinous,  in 
fact,  for  the  people  ultimately  secure  the  freedom 
for  which  they  contend  while  the  ruler  suffers  in 
proportion  as  he  has  delayed  in  the  recognition  of 
the  right  of  free  speech.  A policy  of  national  seclu- 
sion is  simply  the  suppression,  on  a large  scale, 
of  freedom  of  thought.  The  Chinese  government 
undertook  to  prohibit  its  citizens  from  imparting 
any  information  to  or  receiving  any  information 
from  those  living  beyond  its  borders.  It  was 
a gigantic  policy  of  coercion — an  attempt  to  chain 
the  people  to  thoughts,  conditions  and  customs 
[33] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


against  which  with  greater  light  they  might 
rebel. 

Trade  is  voluntary;  like  a contract,  it  involves 
the  meeting  of  two  minds.  We  cannot  sell  a pound 
of  flour,  a bale  of  cotton,  a bolt  of  cloth,  a gallon 
of  oil  or  a piece  of  machinery  in  China  unless  some 
one  desires  to  buy  it.  All  this  talk  of  “ forcing 
trade  ” upon  unwilling  people  is  playing  with 
words.  China  did  not  say  that  her  people  did  not 
want  to  trade  with  the  world,  but  that  they  should 
not  trade  whether  they  wanted  to  or  not.  And  you 
are  authority  for  the  statement  that  a distinction 
must  be  drawn  between  your  government  and  your 
people,  for  you  say,  “ we  are  not  to  be  judged  by  the 
acts  of  our  mobs,  nor  even,  I may  add,  by  those  of 
our  government,  for  the  government  in  China  does 
not  represent  the  nation.”  If  the  mob  which  assaults 
strangers  or  boycotts  foreign  goods  does  not  repre- 
sent the  nation,  and  if  the  government  which  puts 
an  embargo  upon  foreign  intercourse  has  no  author- 
ity to  speak  for  the  people,  who,  pray,  is  in  a posi- 
tion to  declare  the  will  of  the  nation?  What  better 
plan  than  to  allow  each  individual  to  decide  the 
question  for  himself?  While  a nation  may,  for  fiscal 
reasons,  impose  a tax  upon  imports  or  exports,  it  is 
[34] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


nothing  short  of  tyranny  to  deny  the  right  of  a 
people  to  trade  as  they  please  and  where  they 
please.  And  you  have  so  exalted  the  intelligence 
and  morality  of  your  people  that  you  are  estopped 
to  deny  that  they  would  trade  with  discrimination 
and  be  governed  by  ethical  considerations  in  their 
foreign  intercourse.  If  your  encomiums  are  at  all 
deserved,  your  people  are  the  last  to  need  recourse 
to  commercial  seclusion  as  a protection  from  social 
demoralization. 

Aside  from  being  a means  of  making  people 
better  acquainted,  intercourse  between  nations  cre- 
ates sj^mpathy,  and  sympathy  is  absolutely  essen- 
tial to  the  solidarity  of  the  world.  Acquaintance,  as 
a rule,  precedes  sympathy,  and  intercourse  is  neces- 
sary to  acquaintance.  The  principles  that  affect 
international  affairs  are  none  other  than  the  prin- 
ciples which  regulate  individual  life;  it  is,  there- 
fore, logical  to  reason  from  the  unit  to  the  collection 
of  units. 

We  all  recognize  the  fact  that  the  affairs  of  those 
whom  we  know  interest  us  more  than  the  affairs  of 
strangers.  We  read  in  the  paper  that  a person  un- 
known to  us  has  died  or  met  with  a misfortune,  and 
we  pass  on  to  the  next  item;  but  if  it  is  a person 
[35  ] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


whom  we  know,  we  lay  down  the  paper  and  give 
voice  to  our  sorrow  and  sympathy,  and  that  sym- 
pathy is  deep  in  proportion  as  the  acquaintance  has 
been  close.  Even  a chance  meeting  on  an  ocean 
steamer  or  during  a long  railroad  journey  (or,  I 
may  add,  at  a quarantine  station)  suffices  to  give 
a person  a larger  hold  upon  our  active  sympathies 
than  a large  number  of  persons  whom  we  have  never 
seen  and  of  whom  as  individuals  we  have  never 
heard.  How  often  have  we  known  misunderstand- 
ings to  be  removed  by  intimacy  and  friendship  to 
take  the  place  of  distrust  and  prejudice. 

It  is  even  so  with  nations.  Travelling  between 
them  ought  to  be  encouraged  and  commerce  is  a 
sure  promoter  of  travel.  No  nation  can  afford  to 
adopt  a policy  which  is  not  defensible  upon  prin- 
ciples of  general  application.  If  one  great  nation 
can  justify  itself  in  a course  of  political,  economic, 
social  and  religious  isolation,  why  is  not  that  the 
policy  for  all?  And  if  such  should  be  the  policy 
of  all  nations,  how  shall  we  know  that  the  present 
national  boundaries  are  the  proper  ones?  Is  this 
the  policy  for  Belgium  and  Holland  and  Switzer- 
land as  well  as  the  policy  for  a great  nation  like 
China?  If  it  is  only  good  for  large  nations,  how 
[36] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


large  should  a nation  be  before  it  can  properly  wall 
out  the  rest  of  the  world?  And  if  the  policy  is 
good  for  a small  nation  as  well  as  for  a large  one, 
why  should  not  China  be  dissolved  into  a number 
of  smaller  nations  and  these  be  further  subdivided 
into  communities?  If  it  is  well  for  individuals  to 
become  acquainted  and  to  be  drawn  together  by  ties 
of  sympathy,  at  what  point  shall  a barrier  be  raised 
and  on  it  inscribed,  “ Thus  far  shalt  thou  go  and 
no  farther  ” ? 

What  the  world  needs  more  than  anything  else 
is  sympathy — sympathy  between  man  and  man, 
sympathy  between  class  and  class,  sympathy  be- 
tween community  and  community,  sympathy  be- 
tween nation  and  nation;  and  commerce,  faulty  in 
vision,  full  of  frailties,  permeated  with  selfishness 
and  prone  to  error — commerce  still  possesses 
enough  of  saving  salt  to  make  it  a unifying  force. 
With  all  its  weaknesses,  it  has  strength  enough  to 
form  a part  of  the  web  of  human  brotherhood. 


[37] 


CHAPTER  IV 


LABOR-SAVING  MACHINERY 

The  text  for  this  letter  I find  in  your  ingenious 
attack  upon  labor-saving  machinery. 

“ The  truth  is  that  a study  of  your  history  dur- 
ing the  past  century  and  a closer  acquaintance  with 
the  structure  of  your  society  has  considerably  modi- 
fied my  original  point  of  view.  I have  learned  that 
the  most  brilliant  discoveries,  the  most  fruitful  ap- 
plications of  inventive  genius,  do  not  of  themselves 
suffice  for  the  well-being  of  society;  and  that  an 
intelligence  which  is  concentrated  exclusively  on 
the  production  of  labor-saving  machines  may  easily 
work  more  harm  by  the  dislocation  of  industry  than 
it  can  accomplish  good  by  the  increase  of  wealth. 
For  the  increase  of  wealth — that  is,  of  the  means 
to  comfort — is  not,  in  my  mind,  necessarily  good 
in  itself ; everything  depends  upon  the  way  in  which 
the  wealth  is  distributed  and  on  its  effect  on  the 
moral  character  of  the  nation.  And  it  is  from  that 
point  of  view  that  I look  with  some  dismay  upon 
[ 38] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


the  prospect  of  the  introduction  of  Western  meth- 
ods into  China.” 

You  then  proceed  to  explain  how  your  govern- 
ment quieted  some  boatmen  who  tore  up  a railroad 
by  guaranteeing  that  “ the  traffic  by  water  should 
not  seriously  suffer.”  But  even  the  ability  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  compensate  the  people  who  suffer  from 
the  “ dislocation  of  labor  ” caused  by  a new  ma- 
chine does  not  relieve  your  apprehension,  and  you 
are  appalled  by  the  pictured  disorder  which  you 
say  must  inevitably  ensue  among  your  people  if 
Western  methods  of  industry  are  introduced.  You 
argue  against  the  introduction  of  improved  meth- 
ods and  raise  a question  of  great  importance,  viz.. 
Is  the  labor-saving  machine  a blessing  or  a curse? 
Does  it  help  or  hinder  the  development  of  the  indi- 
vidual and  of  society? 

To  agree  upon  an  answer  we  must  first  agree 
upon  a definition  of  civilization,  for  if  we  cannot 
agree  as  to  the  end  to  be  desired,  we  can  hardly 
hope  to  agree  as  to  the  best  means  of  reaching  that 
end.  Even  if  we  could  agree  as  to  the  means  with- 
out agreeing  as  to  the  end,  we  should  be  as  far 
apart  as  ever. 

I can  frame  no  better  definition  of  civilization 

[ 39] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


than  that  it  is  the  harmonious  development  of  the 
human  race,  physically,  mentally  and  morally — 
not  the  development  of  all  along  one  line  or  the 
development  of  a few  along  all  lines,  but  the  full 
and  well-rounded  development  of  all  in  body,  mind 
and  heart.  If  this  is  the  legitimate  aim  of  life  and 
of  life’s  activity,  we  can  judge  all  proposed  poli- 
cies, whether  they  be  economic,  political,  social  or 
religious,  by  the  effect  which  they  have  in  aiding  or 
retarding  this  development. 

Does  the  labor-saving  machine  contribute  toward 
the  physical,  mental  and  moral  imjirovement  of  the 
race?  I will  not  deny  that  the  machine,  like  all 
things  else,  may  be  turned  to  evil  account,  nor  will 
I affirm  that  it  can  be  introduced  without  accom- 
panying temptations  to  new  forms  of  evil.  But  I 
do  assert  that  the  good  brought  far  outweighs  the 
harm  done  and  that  our  efforts  should  be  directed 
to  the  lessening  of  the  latter  rather  than  to  the 
abolition  of  labor-saving  processes.  I once  heard  a 
man  defend  his  failure  to  learn  to  write  by  say- 
ing that  he  knew  a man  who  was  sent  to  the  peni- 
tentiary for  forging  a note  and  that  he  thought  it 
was  safer  to  avoid  the  use  of  the  pen.  To  argue 
against  the  use  of  machinery  because  it  introduces 
[40] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


new  dangers,  even  if  those  dangers  are  difficult  to 
avoid,  would  be  scarcely  less  absurd  than  to  dis- 
courage writing  as  a cure  for  forgery. 

If  the  invention  of  a labor-saving  machine  is 
hurtful,  then  China  has  not  only  sinned  but  has 
boasted  of  her  sins,  for  she  has  plumed  herself 
upon  having  been  in  advance  of  the  West  in  sev- 
eral important  inventions,  chief  among  which  may 
be  mentioned  the  printing  press.  What  an  army 
of  men  might  have  been  employed  copying  the 
books  published  each  year  and  the  magazines  pub- 
lished each  month  and  the  newspapers  published 
each  day,  but  for  the  invention  of  movable  type! 
The  only  flaw  in  the  argument  is  that  the  books, 
magazines  and  papers  would  not  have  existed  to 
any  great  extent  but  for  the  printing  press.  Hun- 
dreds, yes,  thousands  of  times  as  many  persons  are 
employed  on  publications  today  as  would  have  been 
employed  upon  them  if  the  old  method  of  copying 
were  still  the  only  one  employed,  not  to  speak  of 
the  infinite  advantage  that  has  come  to  the  human 
race  through  the  bringing  of  learning  and  general 
information  within  the  reach  of  the  masses.  Take 
the  use  of  steam  as  another  illustration ; what  a 
multitude  of  men  might  have  been  employed  on 
[41] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


sailing  ships  but  for  the  ocean  steamers,  and  how 
many  more  in  carting  and  hauling  on  land  but  for 
the  railway  trains — only  there  would  have  been  no 
such  commerce,  foreign  or  domestic,  as  we  have 
now.  The  number  of  men  engaged  in  transportation 
has  been  increased  rather  than  diminished  by  the 
utilization  of  steam.  But  why  should  the  owner  of  a 
sail  boat  object  to  the  vessel  propelled  by  steam? 
The  sail  itself  is  a labor-saving  machine,  probably 
one  of  the  first.  Who  gave  the  sailors  permission 
to  dispense  with  a multitude  of  oarsmen  and  turn 
their  work  over  to  the  strong  arms  of  Boreas?  Why 
should  the  teamster  find  fault  with  the  locomotive? 
What  moral  right  had  he  to  enforce  idleness  upon 
a dozen  mep  by  substituting  a cunningly  wrougjit 
wagon  for  their  strong  backs?  Even  the  wheelbar- 
row, which  is  omnipresent  in  China,  is  a petty 
thief,  stealing  opportunity  to  work  from  those  who 
but  for  the  inventor  might  be  bearing  its  burdens. 
And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  pole,  employed  every- 
where in  the  Orient,  which  enables  a workman  to 
carry  several  buckets  or  baskets  when  he  might 
otherwise  be  making  several  trips  with  lighter  bur- 
dens? If  to  minimize  the  labor  necessary  for  a given 
task  is  a sin,  how  can  your  people  hope  to  escape 
[4-2] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


censure?  I saw  them  digging  up  the  ground  with 
implements  of  iron  which  had  been  fashioned  for 
the  express  purpose  of  supplementing  the  muscles 
of  the  farmer;  I saw  them  cutting  grain  with  sickles 
when  more  labor  might  have  been  employed  by 
breaking  the  straws  by  hand;  and,  that  the  blame 
may  not  rest  entirely  upon  those  who  toil  outdoors, 
let  me  remind  you  that  I saw  looms  at  wrork,  re- 
lentlessly robbing  those  who  might  have  made  cloth 
by  slower  processes.  By  what  logic  do  you  prove  that 
inventions  were  good  in  so  far  as  they  have  been 
employed  in  China  and  bad  when  they  go  a step 
farther?  Or  do  you  censure  all  inventions  alike  and 
counsel  a return  to  the  most  primitive  form  of  life 
where  men  and  women  live  like  animals,  wearing 
the  garb  that  Nature  gave  them  and  scorning  the 
use  of  tools? 

I prefer  to  believe  that  God  intended  man  for 
a higher  life  when  he  gave  him  dominion  over 
earth  and  air  and  sea;  I prefer  to  believe  that 
progress  is  a part  of  the  divine  plan  and  that  it 
is  as  innocent  to  harness  the  lightning  as  it  is  to 
harness  the  horse;  as  righteous  to  use  the  energy 
of  the  wind  and  the  waterfall  as  to  borrow  the 
strength  of  the  ox. 


[43] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


If  man  is  to  be  more  than  a perfect  beast  there 
must  be  employment  for  the  mind  as  well  as  for 
the  body,  and  while  we  cannot  go  back  into  antiq- 
uity far  enough  to  find  a people  entirely  devoid 
of  inventive  genius,  we  do  know  that  intellectual 
advancement  has  been  greatest  among  those  who 
have  taken  advantage  of  the  forces  of  Nature  and 
thus  increased  their  own  strength.  Buckle,  the  Eng- 
lish historian,  even  goes  so  far  as  to  measure  civili- 
zation by  the  mastery  of  the  human  mind  over  the 
forces  of  Nature.  While  he  errs  in  entirely  ignoring 
the  moral  element,  he  is  right  in  placing  a high 
estimate  upon  the  labor-saving  machine. 

In  the  patent  office  at  Washington  is  a model  of 
the  first  sewing  machine  and  on  it  is  a card  upon 
which  is  the  following: 

“ Mine  are  sinews  superhuman. 

Ribs  of  brass  and  nerves  of  steel; 

I’m  the  IRON  NEEDLE  WOMAN, 
Born  to  toil  but  not  to  feel.” 

A similar  inscription  might  be  placed  upon  every 
important  invention.  The  more  mind  can  be  united 
with  muscle  in  the  work  of  life,  the  greater  will 
be  the  advancement  and  the  easier  will  it  be  to  re- 
[ 44  ] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


move  from  physical  toil  the  odium  which  it  has  so 
often  borne.  If  the  advantages  of  machinery  are 
properly  distributed  every  new  invention  will  bring 
us  nearer  to  the  time  when  all  can  share  equitably 
in  the  wealth  annually  produced  and  all  move  for- 
ward together  toward  life’s  higher  planes. 

You  have  pointed  out  with  great  force  the  chief 
defect  in  our  industrial  system.  The  fault  does  not 
lie  in  the  “ brilliant  discoveries  ” or  in  the  “ fruit- 
ful application  of  inventive  genius/’  but  in  the  fail- 
ure to  secure  for  all  of  society  the  accruing  bene- 
fits. We  have  permitted  the  heritage  of  the  whole 
family  to  be  monopolized  by  comparatively  few; 
we  have  allowed  capital  to  absorb  more  than  its 
share  of  the  products  of  human  toil.  This  is  the 
crying  evil  of  the  Western  world,  and  I am  not 
surprised  that  a stranger  should  be  deeply  im- 
pressed by  it.  But  the  remedy  is  not  to  be  found 
in  the  contraction  of  the  volume  of  production,  but 
in  the  establishment  of  equity  in  the  distribution 
of  reward.  Even  under  the  present  conditions  the 
lot  of  the  average  man  in  America  is  far  better  than 
that  of  the  average  man  in  China,  and  I venture  to 
say  that  by  any  standard — physical,  material,  intel- 
lectual, aesthetic,  moral  or  spiritual — the  average 
[45] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


American  is  far  superior  to  the  average  Chinaman; 
and  I say  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  you  question 
whether  we  have  either  intelligence,  taste,  morals 
or  religion.  But  superior  as  our  civilization  is,  it  is 
not  what  it  should  be  and  not  what  we  desire  to 
have  it.  We  do  not  imitate  you  in  regarding  our 
condition  as  incapable  of  improvement  and  we  do 
not,  like  you,  refuse  instruction  or  suggestion  from 
without.  We  regard  the  work  of  society  as  an  ever 
continuing  one  and  always  unfinished.  While  each 
generation  is  in  duty  bound  to  advance  it  as  far  as 
possible,  it  does  not  hope  to  complete  it.  There  is 
an  increasing  study  of  the  problems  to  be  solved 
and  a constant  elimination  of  things  found  to  be 
bad  and  encouragement  of  things  promising  good. 
As  production  must  come  before  distribution  and 
as  experience  is  the  teacher  from  whom  we  all  learn, 
it  necessarily  follows  that  the  evils  come  before  the 
remedy.  No  one  is  wise  enough  to  measure  in  ad- 
vance the  influence  of  an  invention  or  to  estimate 
its  far-reaching  effects,  but  we  cannot  doubt  the 
disposition  and  the  ability  of  the  people,  when  free 
to  act,  to  find  a remedy  for  every  evil.  We  walk  by 
faith  and  that  faith  is  justified  by  history  and  by 
the  present. 


[46] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


So  to  enlarge  the  wealth  produced  by  man  as  to 
satisfy  all  legitimate  wants  with  a reasonable  day’s 
work  is  the  first  object,  and  the  second  is  so  to 
adjust  the  compensation  as  to  give  each  member 
of  society  a reward  commensurate  with  his  contri- 
bution to  the  welfare  of  society.  To  do  this  it  may 
be  necessary  for  us  to  go  further  than  we  have  yet 
gone  in  compelling  society  as  a whole  to  share  the 
temporary  burden  imposed  upon  particular  classes 
or  industries  by  new  inventions.  A perfect  realiza- 
tion of  these  two  objects  has  not  yet  been  reached; 
to  realize  them  should  be  the  purpose  of  all  who 
have  the  welfare  of  their  fellows  at  heart. 

You  complain  that  the  spirit  has  been  lost  in  an 
unseemly  scramble  for  wealth.  In  this  I am  con- 
strained to  believe  you  grievously  err.  I would  deny 
it  if  asserted  of  any  of  the  European  nations,  but 
I most  earnestly  dispute  it  in  regard  to  my  own 
country.  At  no  time  during  a century  have  moral 
forces  been  more  potent  than  they  are  in  America 
today;  at  no  time  has  the  conscience  been  more 
sensitive ; at  no  time  has  a larger  percentage  of  the 
people  been  engaged  in  altruistic  work.  We  have, 
it  is  true,  gross  illustration  of  unbounded  avarice 
and  inhuman  greed,  and  we  have  still  more  nurner- 

[47] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


ous  illustrations  of  complete  absorption  in  money 
making.  At  the  other  extreme  we  have  the  destitute 
and  the  desperate,  some  the  victims  of  unjust  legis- 
lation or  unfair  conditions,  some  the  victims  of  their 
own  appetites  and  lusts.  But  between  these  classes 
there  is  a large  middle  class — God  fearing  and  God 
worshipping;  a class  composed  of  both  men  and 
women  in  whom  the  spiritual  element  predominates 
and  who,  though  often  discouraged  by  failure  and 
often  putting  forth  misdirected  effort,  yearn  to  be 
of  real  service  to  mankind. 

In  that  refinement  which  is  a matter  of  manners 
rather  than  of  heart;  in  that  estheticism  which  pre- 
fers the  form  to  the  substance;  in  that  learning 
which  breeds  vanity  instead  of  breadth  of  vision — 
in  these  we  may  be  inferior  to  those  who  have  slum- 
bered in  the  cold  embrace  of  Eastern  civilization, 
but  in  all  that  tends  to  enlarge  life,  infuse  into  it 
a throbbing  earnestness  and  direct  it  in  noble  paths, 
I dare  to  believe  America  foremost,  not  only  among 
the  nations  of  today,  but  among  the  nations  past 
as  well. 


[ 48] 


CHAPTER  V 


GOVERNMENT 

And  even  your  government  is  defended  by  your 
facile  pen.  Just  when  its  foundations  are  crumbling 
and  its  moss-grown  methods  are  about  to  be  aban- 
doned, you  proclaim  it  superior  to  the  governments 
which  your  nation  is  preparing  to  imitate.  With  all 
your  eulogy  of  it,  you  take  a pride  in  the  fact  that 
its  sphere  is  very  limited — that  it  does  not  represent 
the  nation  and  that  the  people  could  easily  do  with- 
out it.  No  wonder  you  desire  to  reduce  its  influence 
to  a minimum!  No  wonder  the  masses  seem  indif- 
ferent to  its  fate! 

You  almost  deny  that  the  government  has  any 
existence  when  you  say:  “ Neither  the  acts  nor  the 
omissions  of  the  authorities  at  Pekin  have  any  real 
or  permanent  effect  upon  the  life  of  our  masses 
except  so  far  as  they  register  the  movements  of 
popular  sentiment  and  demand.  Otherwise,  as  you 
foreigners  know  to  your  cost,  they  remain  a dead 
letter.  The  government  may  make  conventions  and 
[49] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


treaties,  but  it  cannot  put  them  into  effect,  except 
in  so  far  as  they  are  endorsed  by  public  opinion.” 
And  then  you  add  the  threat:  “ The  passive  resist- 
ance of  so  vast  a people,  rooted  in  a tradition  so 
immemorial,  will  defeat  in  the  future  as  it  has  done 
in  the  past  the  attempts  of  the  Western  powers  to 
impose  their  will  on  the  nation  through  the  agency 
of  the  government.  No  force  will  ever  suffice  to 
stir  that  huge  inertia.” 

And  this  is  the  law-abiding  people  whose  virtues 
you  so  indiscriminately  extol ! They  permit  an  ab- 
solute monarch  to  occupy  the  throne  and  invest  him, 
or  allow  him  to  invest  himself,  with  power  to  be- 
head at  his  will  any  one  of  his  admiring  subjects, 
and  then  they  show  their  contempt  of  the  govern- 
ment by  refusing  to  obey  any  decree  that  displeases 
them.  They  tolerate  a judicial  system  in  which  the 
decisions  are  sold  to  the  highest  bidder  and  then 
parade,  as  an  evidence  of  merit,  the  fact  that  they 
settle  their  differences  in  private  courts.  They  have 
no  way  of  ascertaining  public  opinion  except 
through  the  mob,  and  this  represents  no  one  but 
those  who  take  part  in  it. 

You  are  audacious  enough  to  contrast  your  method 
of  selecting  your  officials  by  competitive  examina- 
[50] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


tions  with  the  Western  methods  of  election.  While 
your  government  has  recently  abandoned  the  cen- 
turies-old system  of  examinations  and  allowed  the 
pretentious  examination  halls  to  fall  into  decay,  it 
still  maintains  a modified  scheme  of  selection  from 
among  the  graduates  of  the  modern  schools  which 
are  springing  up.  While  this  is  a long  step  in  ad- 
vance, it  is  still  so  far  inferior  to  the  methods  which 
you  condemn  that  it  is  worth  while  to  point  out  some 
of  its  defects. 

Your  old  system  tested  only  the  memory.  The 
aspirants  for  public  place  prepared  themselves  by 
reading  what  was  written  two  thousand  years  ago 
and  by  imitating  the  style  of  poets  whose  lines 
had  been  approved  by  royal  edict,  adding  a smat- 
tering of  censored  history.  The  successful  candi- 
dates gave  no  evidence  of  their  knowledge  of 
present-day  problems,  no  proof  of  their  interest  in 
public  affairs  (for  a desire  to  hold  public  office 
might  indicate  a desire  to  escape  from  association 
with  the  laborers  rather  than  a sincere  interest  in 
good  government).  They  were  not  required  to  show 
proficiency  in  anything  directly  connected  with  the 
work  which  they  might  be  called  upon  to  perform. 
Having  obtained  official  rank,  the  candidates  waited 
[51] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


for  an  appointment,  always  conscious  that  those 
who  had  more  money  could  cheat  them  out  of  the 
coveted  place.  The  rank  was  sometimes  made  a mat- 
ter of  auction  and  a person  of  wealth  could  buy  a 
position  without  passing  any  examination  at  all. 

The  new  plan  of  selecting  from  those  who  have 
completed  the  course  of  study  prescribed  in  the 
schools  is  a marked  improvement  over  the  old,  and 
yet  this  plan  depends  largely  for  its  merits  upon 
the  breadth  and  thoroughness  of  the  collegiate 
course.  And  even  though  a system  of  examinations, 
perfect  in  its  plan  and  details,  did  result  in  the 
selection  of  those  with  the  best  intellectual  quali- 
fications, it  could  not  secure  the  selection  of  those 
best  fitted  for  office,  because  fitness  for  office  means 
more  than  knowledge.  A disposition  to  serve  the 
public  rather  than  to  exploit  it  is  more  essential 
than  mere  mental  attainments,  and  no  system  of 
examinations  can  test  this  quality.  One  who  has  no 
sympathy  with  the  people  whom  he  is  supposed  to 
serve  may  be  the  worse  rather  than  the  better  for 
an  education,  for  he  may  the  more  cunningly  con- 
trive to  take  advantage  of  those  who  pay  his  salary. 

Your  system  of  government,  instead  of  being  the 
best  the  world  has  ever  seen,  is  about  the  worst  that 
[52] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


could  be  conceived.  The  head  of  the  government 
is  a usurper  who  seized  the  throne  (or  rather,  in- 
herited it  from  those  who  took  it  by  force)  ; he  lives 
in  the  “ forbidden  city  ” surrounded  by  walls  to  pro- 
tect him  from  his  subjects;  and  he  administers  gov- 
ernment through  a body  of  officials  responsible 
neither  to  him  nor  to  the  people.  The  sovereign  has 
no  way  of  ascertaining  the  will  of  the  people,  and 
the  people  have  no  interest  in  him.  The  officials  live 
entirely  apart  from  those  whom  they  rule,  and  the 
masses  obey  when  they  please  to  do  so.  To  the 
Western  mind  such  a government  would  seem  the 
very  breeding  ground  of  disorder.  Such  a thing 
can  only  be  called  a government  by  a violent 
wrenching  of  definitions.  We  have,  it  is  true,  a civil- 
service  system,  but  the  selection  by  examinations 
of  subordinate  officials  to  do  routine  work  under  the 
supervision  of  elective  officials  is,  as  you  can  readily 
see,  quite  different  from  your  plan  of  intrusting 
the  entire  machinery  of  government  to  men  thus 
chosen. 

You  compare  your  system  with  our  system  of 
elections,  and  declare  the  former  to  be  much  more 
reasonable.  You  argue  that  our  system  means  repre- 
sentation not  of  the  people  but  of  different  inter- 
[53] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


ests.  I will  leave  others  to  defend  European  poli- 
tics, suggesting  only  that  all  the  European  govern- 
ments are  better  than  your  government  and  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  responsive  to  the  popular  will. 
If  Russia  is  an  exception,  her  ruler  is  paying  the 
penalty  for  his  unwillingness  to  take  the  people 
into  partnership  with  him  in  the  exercise  of  author- 
ity, and  even  here  a legislative  body  has  recently 
been  created. 

But  of  the  United  States  I am  better  prepared 
to  speak,  and  I dispute  your  proposition.  I admit 
that  wealth  sometimes  controls  elections  and  that 
at  all  times  it  exercises  more  influence  than  it  should, 
but  there  is  no  proposition  which  the  people  cannot 
carry  through,  no  principle  which  they  cannot  crys- 
tallize into  law,  when  they  really  undertake  it.  We 
have  one  body,  the  United  States  Senate,  in  which 
the  corporations  exert  the  most  noticeable  influence, 
but  this  is  the  branch  of  Congress  which  is  not 
elected  by  a direct  vote.  The  fact  that  it  is  more  sub- 
servient than  the  House  of  Representatives  to  the 
money  power  is  a strong  argument  in  favor  of  popu- 
lar elections.  In  the  cities  we  have  had  many  in- 
stances of  corrupt  government,  but  in  these  very 
cities  the  people  have  shown  how  quickly  and  how 
[54] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


thoroughly  they  can  purge  their  government  when 
aroused  by  a knowledge  of  official  misconduct.  If 
our  newspapers  have  more  to  say  than  yours  about 
the  misdeeds  of  public  servants,  it  is  partly  due 
to  the  fact  that  we  have  more  freedom  of  the  press 
than  you,  and  partly  because  with  us  malfeasance 
in  office  is  an  unpardonable  sin,  while  with  you  it 
is  a common  occurrence  and  the  thing  expected. 

With  us  the  government  derives  “ its  just  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed”;  the  people 
choose  their  representatives,  retain  them  in  office 
as  long  as  they  like  and  depose  them  when  they 
please.  We  have  none  who  rule  by  right  divine, 
transmitting  office  from  sire  to  son;  neither  have 
we  a permanent  official  class  monopolizing  the 
emoluments  of  the  public  service  and  independent 
of  those  in  the  supposed  interests  of  whom  they 
occupy  their  positions.  The  head  of  our  nation  is 
chosen  by  the  voters,  and  they  include  all  the  adult 
males,  except  in  a few  Southern  States  where  many 
of  the  blacks  are  excluded  by  suffrage  qualifica- 
tions. (In  a few  Western  States  women  vote  upon 
the  same  terms  with  the  men.)  Our  Congress  is  com- 
posed of  two  bodies  both  elective  for  a term  of 
years,  the  senators  by  State  legislatures,  the  repre- 
[55] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


sentatives  by  direct  vote.  Our  States  and  cities  have 
governments  modelled  upon  the  same  plan.  Not 
only  are  our  legislative  and  executive  officials  re- 
sponsible to  the  people  for  the  authority  which  they 
temporarily  exercise,  but  our  judicial  officers  are 
largely  selected  by  ballot,  and  those  who  are  appoint- 
ed are  appointed  by  officials  who  hold  by  election. 

The  people  make  and  unmake,  regulated  in  their 
forms  of  procedure  by  constitutions  framed  and 
adopted  by  themselves.  If  there  are  faults  in  the 
government,  there  are  means  of  correcting  those 
faults;  if  abuses  appear,  they  can  be  remedied;  if 
those  in  authority  go  astray,  they  can  be  disciplined 
or  discharged.  Our  government  can  be  made  as  good 
as  the  people  desire  it  to  be,  for  it  reflects  their 
vigilance,  their  intelligence  and  their  virtue. 

This  system  of  self-government  has  not  only 
developed  in  a century  and  a third  more  great  men 
than  China  has  known  in  all  the  centuries  of  her 
existence,  but  it  has  produced  a still  larger  number 
of  competent  and  conscientious,  if  less  conspicuous, 
officials  and  has  educated  the  masses  of  the  people 
in  public  affairs  to  a degree  scarcely  conceivable 
by  the  Eastern  mind.  Confucius  taught  that  the 
administration  of  government  was  a thing  about 
[56] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


which  no  one  need  concern  himself  unless  he  was 
himself  an  official.  Our  government,  on  the  contrary, 
rests  upon  the  theorj'-  that  the  public  affairs  of  the 
nation  are  the  private  concern  of  all  the  people,  and 
that  the  voters,  being  the  real  sovereigns,  are  in  duty 
bound  to  study  thoroughly  not  only  the  permanent 
principles  of  government  but  the  transient  problems 
which  affect  the  nation’s  welfare.  If  there  be  those 
who  are  indifferent,  it  is  the  business  of  the  alert  to 
arouse  them ; if  mistakes  are  made,  it  is  the  business 
of  all  to  correct  them;  if  the  few  attempt  to  use  the 
instrumentalities  of  government  for  private  ends,  it  is 
within  the  power  of  the  many  to  dispossess  them  and 
to  restore  the  government  to  its  legitimate  functions. 

Since  a few  brave  men  flung  these  doctrines  into 
the  face  of  a king,  the-  theory  of  self-government 
has  spread ; since  our  constitution  was  adopted, 
others  have  been  adopted,  and  the  principles  of 
representative  government  have  been  transplanted 
upon  the  soil  of  every  continent.  Everywhere  the 
power  of  the  people  has  spread,  everywhere  arbi- 
trary power  is  waning.  Even  in  the  Orient  the  day 
has  dawned;  Japan’s  emperor,  without  waiting  for 
revolution,  announced  a constitution  curtailing  his 
own  prerogatives  and  deposited  in  the  hands  of 
[57] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


an  elective  body  the  legislative  power  which  he  had 
formerly  exercised  without  restraint.  In  Russia,  the 
last  European  citadel  of  despotism  is  being  stormed, 
and  the  Czar,  who  could  once  consign  a suspect 
without  trial  to  Siberia’s  inhospitable  plains,  now 
negotiates  with  the  populace,  and,  more  wonderful 
still,  while  I write  your  own  Dowager  Empress  sum- 
mons her  wisest  councilors  and  sends  them  as  en- 
voys to  the  barbarous  West  to  investigate  their  con- 
stitutions with  a view  to  the  promulgation  of  a 
constitution  in  China ! The  world  does  move ; those 
who  love  darkness  rather  than  light  may  glory  in 
the  night,  but  they  cannot  stay  the  coming  of  the 
morning.  The  “ huge  inertia  ” upon  which  you  so 
confidently  rely  will  prove  impotent  to  prevent  the 
change.  The  masses,  “ the  still  and  brooding  soul  ” 
of  China,  as  you  are  pleased  to  describe  them,  will 
join  in  the  demand  for  reform.  Just  as  the  Daimios 
of  Choshu  vainly  tried  to  obstruct  the  progress  of 
Japan,  so  some  of  your  people  may  throw  them- 
selves in  the  path  of  progress,  but  when  Western 
ideals  have  been  planted  in  the  place  of  those  which 
you  now  cherish,  your  people  will  be  as  grateful 
as  are  the  people  of  Japan  for  the  example  set  them 
by  Europe  and  America. 

[58] 


CHAPTER  VI 


THE  HOME 

In  your  letters  special  stress  is  laid  upon  the  home, 
and  you  are  justified  in  regarding  it  as  a strategic 
point  of  the  highest  importance.  If  you  could  show 
that  the  home,  as  it  is  found  in  China,  is  better  than 
the  Western  home  and  more  calculated  to  give  to 
the  individual,  the  community  and  the  nation  that 
development  which  may  be  regarded  as  ideal,  your 
case  would  be  won,  for  the  home  is  the  center  of 
all  civilizing  influence.  As  in  ancient  times  two  ar- 
mies sometimes  selected  individual  champions  to 
decide  the  issue  while  the  rest  looked  on,  so  the 
champions  of  Eastern  and  Western  civilization 
could  well  aff ord  to  commit  the  decision  to  the  issue 
between  the  ideals  which  these  two  homes  represent. 

You  emphasize  reverence  for  parents  and  I make 
no  answer.  “ Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother  ” / 

is  a commandment  binding  the  world  around,  from 
the  dawn  of  creation  to  the  last  generation  of  the 
sons  of  men.  If  in  the  Chinese  home  there  is  more 
[59] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


reverence  for  parents  than  in  the  homes  of  Europe 
and  America,  let  that  fact  be  put  down  to  the  credit 
of  your  people  and  to  the  shame  of  ours,  but  the 
superiority  which  you  claim  is  not  conceded.  Rev- 
erence may  take  upon  itself  numerous  forms,  and 
it  is  not  safe  to  judge  by  outward  appearance  alone 
or  by  the  observance  of  prescribed  forms.  As  in 
religion  the  spirit  is  sometimes  lost  in  devotion  to 
the  ritual,  so  true  filial  respect  may  be  absent  when 
there  is  a profusion  of  obeisance  and  lip  service. 

I specifically  deny  that  the  American  home  is 
lacking  in  love  of  child  for  parent  or  that  those 
tender  ministrations  which  affection  prompts  are 
less  common  in  the  American  than  in  the  Chinese 
home.  That  we  have  instances  of  ingratitude,  neg- 
lect and  even  cruelty  in  a population  of  eighty  mil- 
lions, I freely  concede;  that  you  have  them  in 
China  as  well,  your  court  records  will  prove;  but 
that  they  are  more  common  with  us  or  that  our 
conception  of  a home  naturally  or  logically  weakens 
the  domestic  tie  cannot  be  established.  Not  only  is 
reverence  for  the  parent  presumed,  but  care  for  the 
parent  is  compelled,  and  so  wide-spread  is  the 
respect  for  age  and  consideration  for  the  aged  that 
homes  are  established  by  fraternities,  by  private 
[60] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


philanthropy  and  by  the  State  wherein  those  find 
refuge  who  have  lost  their  relatives. 

But  in  speaking  of  the  home,  it  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  it  includes  something  more  than  the 
devotion  of  child  to  parent.  There  is  a duty  of 
parent  to  child,  and  in  addition  to  this,  there  is 
an  obligation  existing  between  brothers  and  sisters. 
The  Chinese  home  is  built  upon  a philosophy  which 
to  us  seems  one-sided,  much  being  said  about  the 
child’s  duty  to  the  parent  and  the  younger  brothers’ 
duty  to  the  eldest,  but  less  about  the  mutuality  of 
domestic  relations.  Do  not  the  parents  owe  some- 
thing to  the  child?  The  child  enters  life  without 
his  own  volition;  when  he  becomes  conscious  of 
existence,  he  finds  himself  environed  by  others  and 
certain  relations  fastened  upon  him.  He  is  taught 
to  address  one  person  as  father,  another  person  as 
mother,  a third  as  brother  and  a fourth  as  sister. 
As  he  does  not  select  the  parent  whom  he  is  to 
revere,  neither  does  he  determine  whether  he  shall 
be  the  elder  brother  or  the  younger,  or  even  how 
many  brothers  and  sisters  are  to  surround  him.  Can 
it  be  that  thus  brought  into  the  world,  he  is  under 
greater  obligation  to  his  parents  than  his  parents 
are  to  him?  With  them  his  birth  was  a conscious 
[61] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


act,  and  they  are  responsible  for  the  race  marks 
that  he  bears  through  life  and  for  the  national 
frame  into  which  his  existence  is  fitted.  By  what 
process  of  reasoning  does  one  reach  the  conclusion 
that  the  child  must  burn  incense  at  the  grave  of  his 
ancestor  though  that  ancestor  may  have  neglected 
his  body,  his  mind  and  his  soul?  I assert  that  in 
the  American  home  the  conception  of  a parent’s 
duty  is  higher  than  in  a Chinese  home  and  point 
for  proof  to  the  fact  that  the  parents  of  America 
tax  themselves  by  laws  made  by  themselves  in  order 
that  every  child,  others  as  well  as  their  own,  may 
have  an  opportunity  for  intellectual  development. 

Not  only  do  the  parents  of  America  build  school- 
houses,  but  they  build  churches  also  in  which,  as 
they  believe,  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  children  is 
nurtured.  There  is  a reciprocity  between  parent  and 
child,  and  in  the  American  home  the  mutual  obliga- 
tions between  them  are,  as  a rule,  considered  sacred. 

While  your  observations,  according  to  your  let- 
ters, have  been  confined  to  Europe,  you  have  by 
implication  included  the  American  home,  and  of 
this  I feel  that  I can  speak  with  some  intelligence, 
for  my  opportunity  to  become  acquainted  with  the 
home  life  of  my  country  has  been  ample.  In  every 
[62] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


section  of  the  United  States  I have  been  privileged 
to  enter  the  family  circle,  and  I know  whereof  I 
speak  when  I say  that  there  is  no  institution  of 
which  our  people  have  more  reason  to  be  proud 
than  the  American  home.  And  I believe,  further, 
that  no  home,  ancient  or  modern,  in  the  Orient  or 
in  the  Occident,  surpasses  it  in  all  that  goes  to  make 
a home  beautiful,  wholesome  and  improving  to 
those  who  share  its  blessings. 

But  as  regards  brothers  and  sisters,  will  you 
measure  your  home  against  ours?  Will  you  argue 
that  among  brothers  a precedence  based  upon  the 
accident  of  birth  is  as  just  or  as  promotive  of  the 
good  of  all  as  equality  of  rights,  privileges  and 
opportunities  ? Do  we  find  any  guarantee  in  nature 
that  a brother,  because  he  happens  to  be  the  oldest, 
will  administer  with  equity  the  estate  which  his 
father  left?  Your  system  is  patriarchal  and  only 
tolerable  in  the  country  and  in  the  village,  and  that, 
too,  when  education  has  not  been  carried  far  enough 
to  disclose  differing  capacities  for  usefulness.  Even 
where  it  is  at  its  best,  it  cannot  lend  itself  to  the 
fullest  develojjment  or  secure  fairness  or  impar- 
tiality between  the  different  members  of  the  house- 
hold. Harmony  is  inconsistent  with  injustice,  and 
[63] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


I venture  to  assert  that  the  American  home,  because 
built  upon  principles  more  in  accord  with  justice, 
is  more  harmonious.  The  Chinese  home  may  show 
a deference  in  the  younger  children  toward  the  old- 
est brother,  but  it  does  not  show  the  mutual  regard, 
the  mutual  help  and  the  mutual  sacrifice  between 
brothers  and  sisters  which  may  be  found  in  the 
American  home,  where  all  share  and  share  alike  in 
the  advantages  and  in  the  burdens  of  the  household. 

There  is  another  test.  What  is  the  condition  of 
woman  in  the  Chinese  home?  What  is  the  condition 
of  the  daughter  or  the  daughter-in-law?  Does  she 
stand,  as  in  America,  by  the  side  of  the  son  and 
entitled  to  all  the  consideration  shown  to  him?  Is 
her  birth  an  hour  of  joy,  her  childhood  a delight, 
her  young  womanhood  a crown  of  glory  and  her 
happiness  an  object  of  solicitude  to  brothers  as  well 
as  to  parents?  Is  she  regarded  equally  entitled  to 
strength  of  body,  vigor  of  mind  and  independence 
of  purpose?  In  the  American  home  woman’s  place 
is  firmly  established;  she  is  not  merely  a flower, 
although  she  is  an  ornament;  she  is  not  a slave, 
although  she  has  a work  as  important  as  man’s. 
She  is  full  partner  in  all  that  belongs  to  the  family, 
and  in  the  interest  of  future  generations  claims 
[64] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


attention  for  her  every  faculty.  It  is  not  unusual 
in  America  to  see  a brother  denying  himself  that 
his  sister  may  be  educated,  and  the  sister,  in  turn, 
out  of  her  increased  earning  power,  assisting  the 
one  who  educated  her  or  educating  a younger 
brother.  The  permanent  affection  between  the  dif- 
ferent members  of  one  family  is  as  great  in  our 
country  as  in  yours,  and  I am  sure  there  is  no  better 
way  of  showing  love  for  a dead  parent  than  by  care 
for  brothers  and  sisters  and  offspring.  In  America 
less  depends  upon  the  eldest  son,  for  all  the  sons, 
and  the  daughters  as  well,  can  honor  the  parents 
by  making  their  lives  a blessing  to  the  world. 

In  considering  the  home,  I have  only  touched 
upon  the  natural  relations  between  parent  and 
child,  and  between  brothers  and  sisters ; but  since 
you  have  seen  fit  to  claim  so  much  for  the  Chinese 
home,  permit  me  to  say  that  from  our  standpoint 
the  whole  theory  of  the  home  as  it  is  found  in  your 
country  is  inconsistent  with  true  happiness,  as  well 
as  with  broad  and  just  development.  With  us  the 
union,  on  a basis  of  love,  of  one  man  with  one 
woman  in  the  bonds  of  holy  wedlock  is  essential 
to  the  formation  of  a family.  It  is  not  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  an  ideal  home  can  be  built  upon 
[65] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


a marriage  arrangement  by  parents  between  two 
children  before  the  contracting  parties  are  old 
enough  to  know  their  own  minds,  to  make  their 
own  selection  or  to  enter  upon  the  responsibilities 
of  husband  and  wife.  And  as  if  this  were  not  enough 
to  jeopardize  the  happiness  of  the  home,  the  hus- 
band is  allowed  to  select  other  wives  from  time  to 
time  and  to  bring  them  into  the  family;  a practice 
that  I have  heard  justified  on  the  ground  that  he 
has  no  voice  in  the  selection  of  the  first  wife.  To 
make  the  confusion  worse,  he  can  add  concubines 
if  he  prefers  them  to  wives.  To  us  it  is  incon- 
ceivable that  such  a system  should  contribute 
toward,  or  even  permit,  a model  home  life.  I do  not 
mean  to  assert  that  all  Chinamen  have  plural  wives 
or  that  all  of  them  practice  concubinage,  but  these 
things  are  not  only  permitted  by  law  but  tolerated 
by  public  opinion,  and  from  the  royal  family  down 
these  practices  are  generally  recognized  as  proper. 
I doubt  not  that  your  country  has  a multitude  of 
homes  in  which  there  is  happiness,  where  there  is 
a tie  of  indissoluble  affection — homes  into  which 
the  suspicion  of  infidelity  has  never  entered  and 
where  each  is  satisfied  with  the  society  of  the  other; 
but  I am  constrained  to  believe  that  in  all  these 
[66] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


homes  the  happiness  increases  in  proportion  as  they 
approximate  the  American  ideal  and  diverge  from 
the  Chinese. 

Aside  from  the  faults  which  we  see  in  your  mar- 
riage relations,  there  seems  to  us  to  be  an  insuper- 
able objection  to  the  community  family.  It  is  diffi- 
cult enough  to  rear  several  groups  of  children,  the 
offspring  of  different  mothers,  under  one  roof 
(especially  if  room  has  to  be  made  for  an  occa- 
sional illegitimate)  and  preserve  harmony  between 
them,  but  the  difficulty  must  be  much  greater  where 
each  of  several  sons  brings  several  wives  into  the 
same  compound  and  their  sons  do  the  same.  Each 
wife  has  her  relationships,  not  to  speak  of  her 
special  interest  in  her  own  brood,  and  the  influence 
of  the  several  wives  upon  their  husbands,  even 
when  all  have  the  best  of  intentions,  cannot  but 
complicate  family  life.  It  does  not  require  any 
stretch  of  the  imagination  to  picture  discord  as  a 
natural  result  of  such  enforced  joining  of  diverse 
interests,  and  such  a relationship  could  not  stand 
the  strain  at  all  if  the  different  contributors  to  the 
family  fund  differed  materially  in  industry,  capac- 
ity and  attention  to  business. 

While  in  America  the  relatives  do  not  all  live  to- 

[67] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


gether  or  throw  their  earnings  into  a common  fund, 
it  does  not  follow  that  there  is  antagonism  between 
them  or  a lack  of  friendship  one  for  the  other.  With 
each  child’s  rights  recognized  and  each  individual’s 
talents  developed,  the  foundation  is  laid  for  an 
amicable  relationship.  When  the  child  is  grown,  he 
builds  a home  for  himself,  unless  it  is  mutually 
agreeable  that  he  should  bring  his  wife  to  the  fam- 
ily home  and  take  the  burden  of  the  household  from 
the  shoulders  of  the  parents.  The  homes  established 
by  the  children,  while  separate  from  the  parental 
hive  and  from  each  other,  are  not  hedged  in  by 
frowning  walls.  Visiting  back  and  forth  is  constant, 
and  family  reunions  are  numerous,  and  these  are 
not  less  delightful  because  the  families  have  been 
independent  of  each  other  and  each  home  regulated 
by  rules  agreeable  to  its  occupants. 

You  have  been  unfortunate  in  the  families  which 
you  have  visited,  if  your  comment  on  the  Western 
family  is  founded  upon  your  own  observation.  You 
describe  the  family  as  “merely  a means  for  nourish- 
ing and  protecting  a child  until  he  is  of  age  to  look 
after  himself  ” ; in  the  public  school  you  see  only 
a place  where  boys  “ quickly  emancipate  themselves 
from  the  influence  of  their  home  and  you  picture 
[68] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


the  boy  as  sent  out  to  make  his  fortune  as  soon  as 
he  is  of  age  and  ceasing  to  recognize  his  obligations 
toward  his  parents  as  soon  as  he  ceases  to  be  de- 
pendent upon  them.  How  superficial  has  been  your 
survey  of  the  home  that  lies  at  the  root  of  Western 
civilization ! 

Come  to  America  and  acquaint  yourself  with  the 
American  home  as  it  really  is,  and  you  will  find  that 
it  is  not  necessary  that  a child  should  be  dependent 
upon  its  parents  in  order  to  love  them  and  care  for 
them;  you  will  find  that  there  is  a deeper  reverence 
than  that  which  shows  itself  in  pilgrimages  to  a 
grave  and  a more  lasting  affection  than  can  be  ex- 
pressed by  a few  cast-iron  forms,  transmitted  from 
generation  to  generation.  I commend  you  to  the 
American  home,  which  has  its  beginning  in  the  love- 
encircled  union  of  a congenial  pair,  its  flower  in 
children,  loved,  loving  and  each  equal  to  the  others 
in  rights  and  privileges,  and  its  mature  fruit  in 
the  prosperity  and  progress  of  the  community. 


[69] 


CHAPTER  VII 


WITHOUT  A MISSION 

“ We  do  not  conceive  that  we  have  a mission  to 
redeem  or  civilize  the  world,  still  less  that  that 
mission  is  to  be  accomplished  by  the  methods  of 
fire  and  sword;  and  we  are  thankful  enough  if  we 
can  solve  our  own  problems  without  burdening  our- 
selves with  those  of  others.” 

You  might  have  omitted  the  phrase,  “ still  less 
that  that  mission  is  to  be  accomplished  by  the  meth- 
ods of  fire  and  sword,”  without  changing  the  mean- 
ing of  the  sentence.  I shall  be  the  last  to  defend 
the  forcing  of  ideals  or  ideas  upon  others,  and  shall 
vie  with  you  in  the  condemnation  of  such  practices 
no  matter  who  resorts  to  them.  If,  however,  you 
mean  by  this  language  to  assert  that  any  Christian 
nation  is  at  this  time  attempting  to  civilize  by  force, 
you  will  find  difficulty  in  substantiating  the  propo- 
sition, and  in  the  ease  of  my  own  country  you  will 
find  no  proof  at  all.  I have  already  referred  to  the 
matter  of  trade,  and  as  for  the  matter  of  religion, 
[70] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


what  attempt  is  being  made  to  compel  the  adoption 
of  any  form  of  belief?  Our  missionaries  go  to  your 
shores,  it  is  true,  but  they  have  neither  the  disposi- 
tion nor  the  power  to  coerce  your  people  into  the 
acceptance  of  any  creed.  They  present  a gospel  of 
peace  and  a conception  of  life.  If  there  has  been 
violence,  it  has  been  because  your  people  have  at- 
tempted to  put  them  to  death,  and  the  murderous 
attacks  made  upon  them  have  reflected  upon  the 
Chinese  rather  than  upon  the  Americans.  You  do 
not  have  to  kill  a missionary  in  order  to  reject 
Christianity,  and  the  acts  of  violence  have  been 
committed,  not  by  those  who  listened  to  the  mis- 
sionaries, but  by  brutal  and  fanatical  followers  of 
Confucius  who  were  unwilling  to  have  their  coun- 
trymen voluntarily  choose  Christianity. 

All  that  the  Americans  ask  is  that  those  China- 
men who  desire  to  hear  shall  be  permitted  to  hear 
and  that  those  to  whom  Christianity  commends  it- 
self shall  be  permitted  to  accept  it.  This  is  not 
accomplishing  a mission  “ by  the  methods  of  fire 
and  sword.”  You  dodge  the  question  when  you  at- 
tempt to  place  upon  foreigners  the  blame  for  the 
use  of  force  when  that  force  is  used  in  the  pun- 
ishing of  outrages  against  treaty  rights,  outrages 
[71] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


against  international  rights  and  outrages  against 
human  rights.  If  your  language  is  intended  as  a 
defence  of  assaults  upon  missionaries  or  as  a con- 
demnation of  the  punishment  visited  for  such  as- 
saults, you  should  state  your  position  more  clearly 
and  say  boldly  that  our  nation  should  not  punish  a 
Chinaman  for  interfering  with  the  right  of  an 
American  to  hold  communication  with  Chinamen. 

I have  quoted  what  you  say  in  regard  to  your 
nation  having  no  mission  because  it  is  the  most  im- 
portant statement  that  you  make  in  your  letter.  It 
is  said  lightly,  as  if  you  yourself  did  not  recognize 
its  significance.  “ We  do  not  conceive  that  we  have 
a mission  to  redeem  or  to  civilize  the  world,”  you 
say,  and  then  with  smug  self-satisfaction  you  add: 
“ We  are  thankful  enough  if  we  can  solve  our  own 
problems  without  burdening  ourselves  with  those 
of  other  people.” 

Many  criticisms  have  been  made  of  the  Chinese, 
some  in  a friendly  spirit,  some  in  an  unfriendly 
spirit,  but  no  foreigner  has  ever  brought  against 
your  people  a graver  accusation  than  is  couched  in 
the  language  above  quoted.  You  charge  your  people 
with  being  dead,  for  such  a sentiment  is  inconsistent 
with  life  and  health;  you  charge  them  with  being 
[ 72  ] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


so  engrossed  in  their  own  affairs  that  they  have 
neither  thought  nor  care  for  the  rest  of  the  world. 
You  have  unconsciously  revealed  the  secret  of  the 
dry  rot  that  has  been  consuming  your  nation.  You 
have  exposed  the  cause  of  the  stagnation  that  has 
characterized  your  country.  Naturally  the  indiffer- 
ence with  which  your  people  look  upon  the  people 
of  other  nations  manifests  itself  in  indifference  to 
the  welfare  of  each  other.  While,  unfortunately, 
every  country  presents  instances  of  “man’s  inhu- 
manity to  man,”  no  nation  present  or  past  furnishes 
a clearer  illustration  of  man’s  indifference  to  man. 
Selfishness,  ingrowing,  outcropping,  deep-rooted 
and  wide-spreading  is  the  dominant  note  in  your 
social  discord. 

“ We  have  no  mission.”  If  your  nation  were  not 
destined  to  be  reclaimed  by  those  who  have  a mis- 
sion; if  your  people  were  not  to  be  aroused  by  those 
whose  hearts  are  large  enough  to  share  the  burdens 
of  others,  your  words  spoken  in  eulogy  would  form 
a fitting  epitaph  for  your  native  land.  What  a spec- 
tacle a country  presents,  crowded  with  missionless 
men  and  women,  each  one  intent  upon  his  own  prob- 
lems but  unconcerned  about  the  problems  with 
which  his  fellows  are  struggling — the  coolie  look- 
[73] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


ing  out  for  himself,  satisfied  if  he  can  escape  star- 
vation; the  merchant  looking  out  for  himself,  satis- 
fied if  he  can  settle  his  bills  before  New  Year’s  day; 
the  official  looking  out  for  himself,  content  if  he 
can  make  enough  on  the  side  to  support  himself 
in  style  and  care  for  his  leech-like  kin  folks  that 
swarm  about,  and  over  and  above  all  the  Emperor 
looking  out  for  himself,  happy  in  his  harem. 

This  is  the  picture  which  you  have  in  the  past 
presented  to  the  outside  world,  and  yet,  looking 
upon  it,  you  exclaim,  behold  our  greater  intelli- 
gence, our  higher  morality,  our  purer  religion ! 

I will  be  more  just  to  your  people  than  you  are 
and  deny  that  all  of  them  deserve  to  be  character- 
ized as  you  characterize  them.  You  have  had  brave 
spirits  who  have  from  time  to  time  called  your  peo- 
ple from  the  low  levels  to  higher  grounds,  but  their 
voices  have  been  lost — and  in  some  cases  their  lives 
as  well.  Brave  sjfirits  are  calling  again,  for  they 
have  a mission,  and  they  will  call  until  their  call  is 
heeded. 

Western  civilization  has  spread  because  Western 
nations  have  had  a mission,  and  their  peoples  have 
journeyed  over  every  sea  and  throughout  every 
land,  because  they  have  conceived  themselves  to 
[74] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


have  missions.  There  is  an  old  saying,  “ Beware 
of  the  man  with  a mission,”  and  why  beware?  Be- 
cause the  man  with  a mission  is  in  earnest;  he  has 
a purpose  and  he  accomplishes  it.  He  may  in  his 
zeal  be  led  into  error — he  may  even  do  injustice, 
but  he  acts.  The  man  without  a mission — well,  if 
he  has  no  mission  at  all,  he  is  not  a man.  Without 
a mission  man  is  simply  an  animal,  content  to  eat 
ancj.  drink  and  die.  Missions  are  infinite  in  variety. 
One’s  ambition  may  be  to  show  to  what  perfection 
physical  development  can  be  carried,  and  with  pa- 
tient labor,  constant  exercise  and  daily  sacrifice  he 
trains  each  muscle;  another  may  choose  an  intel- 
lectual object  and  seek  to  perfect  himself  in  lan- 
guage, in  literary  style  or  in  the  art  of  speech.  A 
third  may  seek  to  exemplify  the  triumph  of  the 
spiritual  forces  over  the  flesh  and  teach  the  possi- 
bility of  a high  ethical  standard.  Still  another  may 
devote  himself  to  some  domestic  task,  the  care  of 
a home,  the  nursing  of  a parent,  the  training  of 
children  or  the  assistance  of  some  relative  who  is 
in  need  or  who  shows  fitness  for  some  special  work. 

A fifth  may  choose  a still  larger  field  and  dedi- 
cate himself  to  charitable  or  philanthropic  work,  to 
the  development  of  a community,  to  the  advance- 
[75] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


ment  of  a state  or  to  the  welfare  of  a nation.  And 
what  is  true  of  man  is  equally  true  of  woman,  for 
in  the  complex  and  varied  activities  of  life  woman’s 
place  is  as  dignified  as  man’s  and  her  influence 
matches  his.  While  the  number  of  directions  in 
which  a mission  may  lead  one  is  infinite,  the  motive 
power  is  the  same — the  feeling  that  something 
ought  to  be  done  and  that  the  one  to  whom  the  feel- 
ing comes  should  do  it. 

I do  not  know  that  I can  better  describe  the  hav- 
ing of  a mission  than  to  compare  it  with  life  as  we 
see  it  in  the  fields.  The  grain  of  corn  is  planted  in 
the  earth;  the  rain  moistens  the  ground  about  it; 
the  rays  of  the  sun,  warming  the  soil  as  they  pass 
through  it,  touch  the  heart  of  this  grain  of  corn 
and  seem  to  say : “ Awake ! Awake ! Bestir  yourself ! 
The  people  are  hungry  and  you  must  feed  them.” 
The  spark  of  life  within  it  responds  and,  swelling 
with  its  great  purpose,  it  bursts  its  walls.  It  sends 
its  roots  down  into  the  ground,  even  though  the 
ground  may  be  at  first  unyielding;  it  sends  its  tiny 
shoots  up  toward  the  light,  even  though  it  must  push 
aside  the  clods  to  do  so.  The  air  may  sometimes  be 
too  cool  to  be  pleasant,  the  wind  may  be  too  rude 
to  be  enjoyable,  and  the  sun  that  bade  it  rise  may 
[76] 


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become  too  warm  to  be  comfortable,  but  amid  all 
these  trials  and  vicissitudes  it  grows  until,  in  the 
autumn,  the  stalk  turns  its  withered  face  to  the  orb 
of  dair  and  holds  out  the  full-grown  ears  of  corn 
as  if  to  say,  “ Here  is  the  food  for  which  you  asked; 
my  work  is  done;  now  let  me  sleep.” 

Man,  like  the  seed,  may  for  a time  seem  dead, 
but  amid  the  cares  and  crying  needs  of  the  world, 
he  must  feel  not  only  that  there  is  work  to  be  done 
but  that  there  is  work  which  he  above  all  others 
must  perform,  and  just  in  proportion  as  he  responds 
to  the  call  and  expends  himself  in  making  some 
contribution  to  the  world,  he  justifies  his  presence 
in  it. 

Not  only  is  there  that  in  man  which  compels  him 
to  recognize,  even  if  he  does  not  respond  to,  a call 
to  duty,  but  this  consciousness  that  he  is  under 
obligation  to  be  helpful  to  the  world  forces  him  to 
impart  to  others  that  which  he  believes  will  be  of 
use  to  them. 

If  he  feels  that  he  has  discovered  something  of 
transcendent  worth,  he  has  no  choice;  he  must  give 
it  to  the  world.  Nothing  else  approaches  in  value  an 
idea,  and  the  ideas  that  have  blessed  the  world  have, 
as  a rule,  seemed  so  priceless  to  those  who  first  ad- 
[77] 


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vanced  them  that  they  have  devoted  their  lives  to 
their  propagation  and  often  died  in  testimony  of 
their  faith  in  them. 

No  more  accurate  distinction  can  be  drawn  be- 
tween China  and  the  Western  world  than  you  have 
drawn  when  you  suggest  that  our  nations  conceive 
that  they  have  a mission  “ to  redeem  and  to  civilize 
the  world/’  while  your  nation  has  no  mission  and 
is  satisfied  to  solve  its  own  problems  without  bur- 
dening itself  with  the  problems  of  other  people. 
Europe  and  America  feel  that  they  have  a mission, 
and  this  explains  their  growth  and  the  expansion 
of  their  influence.  They  are  so  certain  that  they  have 
something  good  to  bestow  upon  the  world  that  they 
are  willing  to  encourage  education  everywhere,  and 
then  risk  the  world’s  verdict  on  their  definition  of 
civilization  and  on  their  conception  of  human  life. 
Can  they  give  better  proof  of  their  sincerity  or  of 
their  faith  in  the  ideals  that  inspire  them? 

In  their  attempt  to  accomplish  their  mission  they 
have  shown  the  frailties  that  are  inherent  in  man; 
the  light  within  them  has . had  to  shine  through 
clouded  glass,  but  with  all  their  imperfections,  with 
all  their  sins,  aye,  with  all  their  crimes — if  you  in- 
sist upon  so  harsh  a word — they  have  not  only  made 
[78] 


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progress  themselves  but  they  have  imparted  bless- 
ings unspeakable.  Better,  a thousand  times  better, 
is  the  man  with  high  purpose  and  good  impulses 
who  in  his  large  life  reveals  some  evil  mingled  with 
his  benevolence,  than  the  colorless,  passionless,  use- 
less man  who  by  a negative  existence  leaves  the 
world  no  better  than  he  found  it.  Better  the  nation 
that,  aspiring  high  and  laying  out  for  itself  a gigan- 
tic task,  goes  forward  in  a civilizing  work,  even 
though  its  virtues  are  not  unmixed  with  base  alloy, 
than  a nation  which,  wrapped  in  the  contemplation 
of  its  own  immaculateness,  sleeps  the  precious 
years  away,  indifferent  to  the  world’s  welfare  and 
unmindful  of  misery  that  might  be  relieved. 


[79] 


CHAPTER  VIII 


CHRISTIANITY  VERSUS  CONFUCIANISM 

Nowhere  do  we  grow  more  eloquent  than  in  con- 
trasting the  religion  and  morals  of  China  with  those 
of  the  Western  world.  In  the  very  beginning  of 
your  letters  you  boldly  assert  the  superiority  of 
your  nation  in  this  respect.  You  say: 

“ But  not  only  is  our  civilization  stable,  it  also 
embodies,  as  we  think,  a moral  order ; while  in 
yours  we  detect  only  an  economic  chaos.” 

Again : 

“ He  (the  Chinaman)  has  both  the  instinct  and 
the  opportunity  to  appreciate  the  gifts  of  Nature, 
to  cultivate  manners,  and  to  enter  into  humane  and 
disinterested  relations  with  his  fellows.  The  result 
is  a type  which  we  cannot  but  regard  as  superior, 
both  morally  and  esthetically,  to  the  great  bulk  of 
your  own  citizens  in  Europe.” 

And  still  again: 

“ We  believe,  it  is  true,  that  our  religion  is  more 
rational  than  yours,  our  morality  higher  and  our 
[80] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


institutions  more  perfect;  but  we  recognize  that 
what  is  suited  to  us  may  be  ill  adapted  to 
others.” 

Speaking  of  Confucianism  you  answer  the  sug- 
gestion that  it  is  merely  a code  of  ethics,  by  say- 
ing: 

“ This,  too,  is  true  in  so  far  as  its  whole  aim  and 
purpose  is  to  direct  and  inspire  right  conduct.  But, 
on  the  other  hand — and  this  is  the  point  I wish  to 
make — it  is  not  merely  a teaching,  but  a life.  The 
principles  it  enjoins  are  those  which  are  actually 
embodied  in  the  structure  of  our  society,  so  that 
they  are  inculcated  not  merely  by  written  and 
spoken  word,  but  by  the  whole  habit  of  every-day 
experience.  The  unity  of  the  family  and  the  state, 
as  expressed  in  the  worship  of  ancestors,  is  the 
basis  not  merely  of  the  professed  creed,  but  of  the 
actual  practice  of  a Chinaman.” 

In  another  place  you  say  that  Confucianism  “ is 
the  exponent  of  the  ideal  of  work  ” and  add: 

“ I claim  for  us  that  the  life  of  our  masses  is  so 
ordered  and  disposed  as  to  accord  with  the  postu- 
lates of  our  creed;  that  they  practice,  if  they  do  not 
profess,  the  tenets  of  our  sages ; and  that  the  two 
cardinal  ideas  on  which  every  society  should  rest, 
[81] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


brotherhood  and  the  dignity  of  labor,  are  brought 
home  to  them  in  direct  and  unmistakable  form  by 
the  structure  of  our  secular  institutions.” 

As  for  Christianity,  you  can  scarcely  conceal  your 
contempt  for  it  and  its  founder.  You  say  of  the 
principles  of  our  religion  that  they  were  “ enun- 
ciated centuries  ago,  by  a mild,  Oriental  enthusiast, 
unlettered,  untravelled,  inexperienced,”  and  that 
“ they  are  remarkable  not  more  for  their  tender 
and  touching  appeal  to  brotherly  love  than  for  their 
aversion  or  indifference  to  all  other  elements  of  hu- 
man excellence.” 

You  observe: 

“ I cannot  see  that  your  society  is  based  upon 
religion  at  all;  nor  does  that  surprise  me,  if  I have 
rightly  apprehended  the  character  of  Christianity. 
For  the  ideal  which  I seem  to  find  enshrined  in  your 
Gospels  and  embodied  in  the  discussions  of  your 
divines,  is  one  not  of  labor  on  earth,  but  of  con- 
templation in  heaven ; not  of  the  unity  of  the  human 
race,  but  of  the  communion  of  saints.” 

You  refer  to  “ that  extraordinary  epoch  in  West- 
ern history  when  the  Christian  conception  made  a 
bid  to  embody  itself  in  fact,”  and  you  characterize 
it  as  “ the  life  and  death  struggle  of  a grandiose 
[82] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


ideal  against  all  the  facts  of  the  material  and  moral 
universe.” 

Of  the  influence  of  Christianity  you  remark  that, 
“ while  it  is  strong  enough  to  make  him  (the  Euro- 
pean) a chronic  hypocrite,  it  is  not  so  strong  as 
to  show  him  the  hypocrite  he  is  ” ; that  “ deprived 
on  the  one  hand  of  the  support  of  a true  ethical 
standard,  embodied  in  the  life  of  society  of  which 
he  is  a member,  he  is  duped,  on  the  other,  by  lip- 
worship  of  an  impotent  ideal.” 

And  this  is  the  picture  which  you  draw  of  the 
average  Englishman  (and  in  your  preface  you  in- 
clude the  American  with  the  European)  : 

“ I see  one  divorced  from  Nature,  but  unre- 
claimed by  art;  instructed,  but  not  educated;  as- 
similative, but  incapable  of  thought.  Trained  in  the 
tenets  of  a religion  in  which  he  does  not  really  be- 
lieve— for  he  sees  it  flatly  contradicted  in  every  re- 
lation of  life — he  dimly  feels  that  it  is  prudent  to 
conceal  under  a mask  of  piety  the  atheism  he  is 
hardly  intelligent  enough  to  avow.  His  religion  is 
conventional  and,  what  is  more  important,  his 
morals  are  as  conventional  as  his  creed.” 

I have  quoted  enough  to  show  you  that  you  not 
only  regard  Confucianism  as  superior  to  Christian- 
[83] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


ity,  but  that  you  claim  for  the  Chinaman  that  he 
lives  up  to  the  Confucian  ideal,  while  you  charge 
the  Christian  with  falling  below  an  ideal  which  you 
characterize  as  impracticable  and  impotent. 

Let  me  admit,  without  qualification,  that  the 
Christian  ideal  is  not  lived  up  to  anywhere  in  the 
world;  let  me  admit  that  the  best  of  Christians 
everywhere  fall  below  the  conception  of  life  pre- 
sented by  the  life  and  teachings  of  the  Man  of  Gal- 
ilee, and  still  I will  contend  that  one  who  follows 
Christ  afar  off,  even  with  limping  step  and  many  a 
fall,  may  live  a nobler  life  than  the  perfect  disciple 
of  Confucius.  No  ideal  is  high  that  is  fully  real- 
ized. The  man  who  claims  for  his  ideal  that  instead 
of  being  above  him,  it  is  perfectly  embodied  in  his 
life,  confesses  that  he  has  no  aspirations  for  im- 
provement. It  is  the  glory  of  the  Christian  ideal 
that  while  it  is  within  sight  of  the  weakest  and  the 
lowliest,  it  is  still  high  enough  to  keep  the  best 
and  the  purest  with  their  faces  turned  ever  upward. 

If  my  purpose  were  to  combat  each  erroneous 
proposition  submitted  by  you,  I might  question 
your  right  to  credit  Confucius  with  having  empha- 
sized either  human  brotherhood  or  the  dignity  of 
labor.  The  three  relations  which  he  most  dwelt  upon 
[ 84] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


were  the  relation  between  father  and  son,  the  rela- 
tion between  the  elder  brother  and  his  younger 
brothers  and  the  relation  between  the  king  on  the 
one  hand  and  the  people  on  the  other. 

Of  the  relationship  between  the  individual  and 
his  fellows,  he  said  far  less  than  of  the  particular 
relations  above  referred  to,  and  of  the  relations  be- 
tween his  own  countrymen  and  the  rest  of  the  world 
he  said  nothing.  To  the  broad  relationships  of  life 
he  seemed  to  give  no  attention,  and  man’s  indis- 
soluble connection  with  all  other  members  of  the 
human  race  was  a subject  which  he  entirely  ignored. 

On  the  subject  of  labor,  his  advice  was  not  com- 
prehensive, and  he  seemed  to  assume  that  the  supe- 
rior man  was  to  live  by  the  labor  of  others.  The  gulf 
between  the  educated  classes  and  the  masses  which 
has  existed  in  China  for  centuries  must  be  due  to  his 
teachings,  if,  as  you  say,  Chinese  society  is  mod- 
elled according  to  his  precepts. 

If  you  only  claimed  for  Confucius  superiority 
over  those  about  him,  the  claim  would  not  be  dis- 
puted; if  you  only  credited  him  with  unusual  wis- 
dom and  an  earnest  desire  to  raise  the  moral 
standard  of  his  country,  the  position  would  be 
granted.  His  life  was  devoted  to  contemplation  and 

r 85} 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


instruction,  and  he  has  left  enough  in  the  way  of 
sound  admonition  to  advanced  thought  to  give  him 
a place  among  the  world’s  great  men ; but  when 
you  compare  him  with  the  founder  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  and  impute  to  him  a better  or  more 
practical  code  of  morals,  you  must  expect  to  be 
challenged. 

Aside  from  what  may  be  called  the  religious  side 
of  Christianity,  there  is  an  ethical  side;  Christ  pre- 
sented a system  of  moral  philosophy  which  can  be 
judged  upon  its  merits.  To  this  code  of  morality — 
to  this  conception  of  life — I beg  to  call  your  at- 
tention. 

If  you  think  that  Christ  occupied  the  time  of  His 
disciples  in  discussing  the  beauties  of  heaven  to  the 
neglect  of  things  connected  with  the  present  life, 
you  should  re-read  the  Scriptures;  you  will  dis- 
cover that  the  Master  seldom  referred  to  the  future 
life  but  continually  emphasized  the  relations  which 
exist  between  man  and  man.  He  pointed  out  the 
dangers  which  beset  life  and  the  temptations  to 
which  all  are  liable,  and  He  fortified  the  individual 
at  every  point  for  his  combat  with  the  evil  in  the 
world.  No  other  teacher  has  evinced  such  a perfect 
knowledge  of  human  nature  or  so  analyzed  it.  He 
[86] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


showed  His  disciples  how  to  be  tender  without  being 
weak,  how  to  be  strong  without  being  proud  or  ar- 
rogant, and  He  proved  how  much  more  potent  love 
is  than  force.  He  built  a moral  structure  upon  solid 
rock,  and  experience  has  shown  how  wisely  He 
adapted  it  to  man’s  every  need. 

Confucius  dealt  with  rules  and  formulas;  Christ 
dealt  with  substance  and  with  unchanging  truth. 
Confucius  spoke  frequently  of  manners  and  cere- 
monies; Christ  purified  the  heart,  out  of  which  are 
the  issues  of  life.  Proprieties  formed  a conspicuous 
theme  in  the  conversations  of  Confucius — how  to 
behave  toward  the  father,  how  to  act  toward  the 
elder  brother,  how  to  approach  the  king  and  his 
ministers — these  subjects  are  minutely  treated;  the 
purpose  weighed  with  Christ,  and  the  uprightness 
of  intention  more  than  outward  form.  Confucius 
sought  to  show  kings  how  they  could  become  pop- 
ular with  their  ministers  and  subjects,  and  indi- 
viduals how  they  might  become  “superior  men”; 
Christ  made  service  the  measure  of  greatness  and 
established  a standard  which  can  be  adapted  with 
profit  by  prince  and  peasant  alike.  For  the  noisy 
scramble  for  gain  and  selfish  advantage,  he  sub- 
stituted a peaceful  rivalry  in  doing  good,  estimating 
[87] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


life,  not  by  its  accumulations,  but  by  its  contri- 
bution to  the  sum  of  human  happiness. 

There  are  two  points  at  which  the  teachings  of 
Confucius  and  Christ  conflict — not  that  these  are 
the  only  points,  but  here  the  conflict  is  especially 
noticeable  and  the  difference  vital. 

Tsze-Kung  asked,  “ Is  there  one  word  which  may 
serve  as  a rule  of  practice  for  all  one’s  life?  ” Con- 
fucius replied:  “ Is  not  reciprocity  such  a word? 
What  you  do  not  want  done  to  yourself,  do  not  do 
to  others.”  Christ  taught,  “ Whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them.” 
These  two  precepts  have  sometimes  been  confused, 
and  Confucius  has  even  been  credited  with  fore- 
stalling the  Golden  Rule.  But  there  is  a world  of 
difference  between  the  two  doctrines.  “Do  not” 
states  the  negative  side  and  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes. 
The  man  who  obeys  Confucius  will  do  no  harm,  and 
that  is  something;  the  harmless  man  stands  upon  a 
higher  plane  than  the  man  who  injures  others. 
But  “ Do  ” is  the  positive  form  of  the  rule,  and  the 
man  who  does  good  is  vastly  superior  to  the  merely 
harmless  man.  One  can  stand  on  the  bank  of  a 
stream  and  watch  another  drown  without  lifting 
a hand  to  aid  and  yet  not  violate  the  “ do  not  ” of 
[ 88] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


Confucius,  but  he  will  violate  the  “ do  ” of  Christ. 
Life  in  China  illustrates  this  very  difference.  There 
is  apparently  lacking  that  cohesion  which  sympathy 
produces,  that  active  interest  in  others  which  our 
Gospels  enjoin;  verily,  one  can  live  up  to  the  Con- 
fucian  ideal  and  yet  be  almost  as  useless  to  his 
neighborhood  and  his  nation  as  the  insensate  stone. 

Reciprocity  is  a balancing  of  favors  and  implies 
a careful  calculation  of  benefits  received  and  be- 
stowed. The  man  who  has  no  higher  rule  will  spend 
time  adding,  subtracting  and  multiplying  which  he 
could  spend  in  acting.  How  much  larger  the  doc- 
trine of  Christ,  who  bids  us  measure  the  gift  by 
the  need  and  not  by  what  we  have  previously  re- 
ceived. The  overflowing  spring,  pouring  forth 
constantly  and  asking  not  where  or  how  far  away 
the  waters  flow,  is  the  Christian  symbol  of  an 
ideal  life.  Of  what  use  would  a reciprocal  spring 
be,  which  only  gave  forth  as  much  water  as  was 
poured  into  it? 

And  this  is  a practical  doctrine,  for  it  has  been 
exemplified  in  millions  of  lives,  as  your  own  land 
will  testify.  While  your  people  (are  they  living  up 
to  the  ideal  of  Confucius?)  are  stoning  missionaries 
and  organizing  mobs  to  drive  out  the  foreigner, 

[ 89] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


Americans  and  Europeans  are  risking  their  lives  to 
bring  light  and  religious  liberty  to  the  Chinese. 
Throughout  the  Christian  world  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, yes,  thousands  of  thousands,  have  contributed 
of  their  money  that  your  children  might  have  an 
education — thus  showing  more  interest  in  the 
masses  of  China  than  many  of  the  educated  Chinese 
and  “ superior  men  ” have  shown  in  their  own  coun- 
trymen. This  unselfish  interest  in  the  people  of 
other  lands — this  willing  sacrifice  that  others  may 
be  made  happier — is  the  fruit  of  Christ’s  gospel 
of  positive  helpfulness;  has  Confuseianism  borne 
such  fruit? 

But  there  is  a second  conflict  and  a difference 
even  greater,  if  possible,  in  its  consequences.  Some 
one  asked  Confucius,  “What  do  you  say  concern- 
ing the  principle  that  injury  should  be  recompensed 
with  kindness?  ” He  replied:  “ With  what  then  will 
you  recompense  kindness?  Recompense  injury  with 
justice,  and  recompense  kindness  with  kindness.” 
Christ  dealt  with  that  identical  question,  and  in 
that  most  wonderful  of  all  discourses,  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  said:  “ Ye  have  heard  that  it  has  been 
said.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  and  hate  thy 
enemy,  but  I say  unto  you,  love  your  enemies,  bless 
[ 90  ] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


them  that  curse  you,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you, 
and  pray  for  them  that  despitefully  use  you  and 
persecute  you.” 

Do  you  discern  any  difference  between  these  two 
doctrines  ? And  can  you  be  so  blind  as  not  to  recog- 
nize the  infinite  superiority  of  the  Christian  creed? 
Recompense  evil  with  justice?  Who  can  correctly 
define  the  word  justice  when  his  heart  is  full  of 
hatred  and  his  bosom  swells  with  angry  passions? 
Man’s  eyesight  is  poor  enough  at  best;  it  cannot  be 
relied  upon  when  he  looks  through  a mist  of  resent- 
ment. Christ  goes  to  the  root  of  the  matter;  He 
would  remove  the  retaliatory  spirit  which  blurs  the 
vision.  How  this  philosophy  transcends  the  codes 
and  creeds  of  earth’s  sages!  How  it  stretches  forth 
in  its  world-wide  reach ! How  it  glows  with  life  and 
vigor ! 

If  I were  asked  to  name  the  sentence  in  Christ’s 
gospel  which  gives  most  inherent  and  conclusive 
proof  of  His  knowledge  of  man,  I would  point  to 
the  Beatitude,  “ Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for 
they  shall  see  God  ” ; if  I were  asked  to  point  out 
words  which  more  clearly  than  any  other  differen- 
tiate the  teachings  of  Christ  from  the  utterances 
that  have  fallen  from  uninspired  lips,  I would  quote 

[91] 


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from  his  simple  but  incomparable  prayer,  “ Forgive 
us  our  trespasses  as  we  forgive  them  that  trespass 
against  us.”  Difficult  ideal  to  realize?  Yes.  And  so 
is  it  difficult  to  climb  the  mountain,  but  how  else  can 
one  extend  his  view?  Is  it  an  impracticable  doc- 
trine? On  the  contrary,  it  has  not  only  been  suc- 
cessfully tried  by  tens  of  thousands  but  it  com- 
mends itself  to  the  reason.  Nothing,  except  being 
forgiven,  so  relieves  the  heart  as  forgiving;  no 
burden  is  heavier  to  carry  than  revenge.  Longing  to 
get  even  may  be  natural,  but  forgiveness  is  a moral 
triumph  of  the  first  magnitude.  The  desire  for 
revenge  poisons  the  life  of  the  one  who  cherishes  it; 
the  taking  of  revenge  embitters  the  one  upon  whom 
it  is  visited.  Revenge  begets  revenge,  as  like  breeds 
like,  while  forgiveness  melts  the  stony  heart  and 
brings  reconciliation.  Difficult  as  it  may  be  to  culti- 
vate this  spirit  of  forgiveness,  its  worth  cannot  be 
doubted,  neither  can  wTe  doubt  its  efficacy  as  a com- 
pelling force.  The  heart  can  resist  any  other 
weapon,  but  before  this  one  it  is  defenseless. 

Centuries  before  the  birth  of  Christ  the  Hebrew 
prophet  Isaiah  foretold  His  coming  and  styled  Him 
the  Prince  of  Peace;  and  the  commandment  given 
by  this  Prince  of  Peace,  “ Thou  slialt  love  thy 
[92] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


neighbor  as  thyself,”  furnishes  the  only  basis  upon 
which  lasting  peace  can  be  built.  This  doctrine, 
however,  is  not  only  not  found  in  the  teachings  of 
Confucius  but  is  directly  combated  by  Mencius, 
who,  according  to  Chinese  opinion,  stands  next  to 
Confucius  as  a philosopher. 

Not  only  is  the  Christian  ideal  a high  one  and 
a practical  one,  but  it  is  a universal  one.  You  aban- 
don your  case  when  you  say  of  Confucianism  that  it 
“ may  be  ill  adapted  to  others.”  Men  may  differ  in 
the  color  of  the  skin  and  in  features;  they  may 
differ  in  intelligence  and  in  methods  of  thought; 
they  may  differ  in  race  characteristics  and  in  theo- 
ries of  government,  but  they  are  alike  in  all  that 
pertains  to  the  heart  and  its  development.  The  law 
of  love  is  as  universal  as  the  law  of  gravitation,  and 
its  influence  is  as  omnipresent.  As  the  influence  of 
gravitation  would,  but  for  obstructions,  draw  all 
particles  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  toward  the 
center,  so,  but  for  the  obstructions  interposed  by 
selfishness,  love  would  draw  all  hearts  together ; and 
as  obstructions  only  suspend,  but  do  not  destroy 
the  law  of  gravitation,  so  selfishness  cannot  destroy, 
though  it  may  temporarily  suspend,  the  constant 
operation  of  the  law  of  love. 

[93] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


Experience  is  the  test  of  truth,  and  experience 
shows  that  there  is  no  corner  of  the  earth  where  the 
truth  of  Christianity  has  not  been  recognized  and 
its  principles  applied.  The  story  of  Him  to  whom 
you  refer  as  “ a mild  Oriental  enthusiast,  unlet- 
tered, untravelled  and  inexperienced,”  has  been 
translated  into  every  tongue,  and  that  simple  story 
has  kindled  everywhere  an  enthusiasm  that  dim- 
ly, at  least,  reflects  the  earnestness  of  Him  who 
“ spake  as  never  man  spake.”  In  your  own  country 
there  is  abundant  evidence  of  the  gradual  sub- 
stitution of  the  Christian  for  the  Confueian  code, 
and  during  the  Boxer  trouble  thousands  of  China- 
men suffered  death  rather  than  surrender  the  faith 
which  the  life  and  teachings  of  Christ  had  im- 
planted in  them,  and  there  were  among  your  people 
examples  of  courage  and  consecration  that  recalled 
the  martyrdom  of  the  early  days  of  the  Christian 
church. 

As  a fountain  of  water  issuing  from  a hillside 
clothes  a barren  plain  with  verdure,  so  Christianity 
has  scattered  oases  throughout  China  and  is  today 
exerting  an  influence  far  greater  than  the  actual 
church  membership  would  indicate.  Schools  have 
followed  the  Christian  teachers,  and  hospitals  have 
[ 94] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


sprung  up  in  the  wake  of  the  medical  missionary. 
The  light  from  the  Cross  lias  fallen  upon  the  Chi- 
nese home,  and  already  its  quickening  influence 
has  been  shown  in  schools  for  girls  and  societies 
for  the  discouragement  of  foot-binding,  child  mar- 
riage and  other  evils.  Your  students,  even  if  they 
do  not  confess  the  source,  are  appropriating  the 
results  of  Christianity,  and  your  statesmen  are 
finding  it  necessary  to  copy  the  institutions  which 
Christianity  has  planted. 

The  growth  of  Christianity  from  its  beginning 
on  the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  until  today,  when  its 
converts  are  baptized  in  all  the  rivers  of  the  earth, 
is  so  graphically  described  by  Rev.  Charles  Edward 
Jefferson,  of  New  York,  in  his  book  entitled, 
“ Things  Fundamental,”  that  I take  the  liberty  of 
concluding  this  chapter  and  these  letters  with  his 
words : 

“ Christ  in  history ! There  is  a fact — face  it.  Ac- 
cording to  the  New  Testament,  Jesus  walked  along 
the  shores  of  a little  sea  known  as  the  Sea  of  Gali- 
lee. And  there  he  called  Peter  and  Andrew  and 
James  and  John  and  several  others  to  be  his  fol- 
lowers, and  they  left  all  and  followed  him.  After 
they  had  followed  him  they  revered  him,  and  later 
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LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIA1 


on  adored  and  worshipped  him.  He  left  them  on 
their  faces,  each  man  saying,  ‘ My  Lord  and  my 
God!  ’ All  that  is  in  the  New  Testament. 

“ But  put  the  New  Testament  away.  Time  passes; 
history  widens;  an  unseen  Presence  walks  up  and 
down  the  shores  of  a larger  sea — the  sea  called  the 
Mediterranean  — and  this  unseen  Presence  calls 
men  to  follow  him.  Tertullian,  Augustine,  Anselm, 
Aquinas,  Francis  of  Assisi,  Thomas  a Kempis,  Sa- 
vonarola, John  Huss,  Martin  Luther,  Philip  Me- 
lanchthon,  Uhlric  Zwingli,  John  Calvin — another 
twelve — and  these  all  followed  him  and  cast  them- 
selves at  his  feet,  saying,  in  the  words  of  the  earlier 
twelve,  * My  Lord  and  my  God ! ’ 

“Time  passes;  history  advances;  humanity  lives 
its  life  around  the  circle  of  a larger  sea — the  Atlan- 
tic Ocean.  An  unseen  Presence  walks  up  and  down 
the  shores  calling  men  to  follow  him.  He  calls  John 
Knox,  John  Wesley,  George  Whitefield,  Charles 
Spurgeon,  Henry  Parry  Liddon,  Joseph  Parker, 
Jonathan  Edwards,  Horace  Bushnell,  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  Richard  Saltus  Storrs,  Phillips  Brooks, 
Dwight  L.  Moody — another  twelve — and  these  leave 
all  and  follow  him.  We  find  them  on  their  faces,  each 
one  saying,  ‘ My  Lord  and  my  God ! ’ 

[96] 


LETTERS  TO  A CHINESE  OFFICIAL 


“Time  passes;  history  is  widening;  humanity  is 
building  its  civilization  round  a still  wider  sea — we 
call  it  the  Pacific  Ocean.  An  unknown  Presence 
moves  up  and  down  the  shores  calling  men  to  follow 
him,  and  they  are  doing  it.  Another  company  of 
twelve  is  forming.  And  what  took  jAace  in  Palestine 
nineteen  centuries  ago  is  taking  place  again  in  our 
own  day  and  under  our  own  eyes.” 

THE  END 


[97] 


Date  Due 

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